Russian rules of distribution of offshore quotas amended to cover inshore operations

On 30 July 2009 Russia's PM Vladimir Putin signed an order approving amendments to the Government's order No.605 dated 12 August 2008 stipulating rules for distributing capture quotas for commercial fisheries on the continental shelf of the Russian Federation and Russia's EEZ, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (https://www.fishnet.ru/).

More specifically, now the rules cover both offshore and inshore fisheries, while the previous version of the order was not applicable to inshore operations.

Besides, according to the new amendments the ten-year quota shares will be distributed on the basis of actual catch records from the national fishery register for the period of nine years (compared to four years before the amendments).

Correspondingly, applicants for the quota shares shall now confirm their property rights for fishing vessels for the period of nine preceding years (four years in the previous variant of the rules).

Instead of "own and chartered vessels" the amended order uses "vessels under the property right" and "vessels used on the charter basis (bare-boat charter or time charter)". Therefore, the list of documents attached to the application shall now include "bare-boat charter or time charter agreement" (for chartered vessels), while the previous variant of the rules provided for submission of "charter agreement".