Russia's Government defined size of large damage to fish stocks for quota termination

The Government of the Russian Federation has issued an order No.625 stipulating the size of the damage to the aquatic biological resources which shall be regarded as large, a spokesman of Vladivostok-based Alaska pollock Fishermen's Association told www.fishnet-russia.com (https://www.fishnet.ru/).

In particular, the following sizes of damage to aquatic bioresources shall be regarded large: 150 tonnes for Alaska pollock and herring, 80 tonnes for cod, 70 tonnes for pink salmon, and 50 tonnes for chum salmon, flounder, and saury. (With this order the Government has agreed with the Association's initiative to call an illegal catch of 150 tonnes of Alaska pollock a large damage to stocks. However the procedure of dealing with claims has been left administrative, though the Association has pressed to make it judicial.)

According to the order, the size of the damage shall be calculated as a difference between actual catches and the capture quota specified in the fishing permit. In case of capture of aquatic bioresources not specified in the fishing permit, except for the allowable bycatch, the size of the damage, which has been made to the fish stocks and which shall be estimated as large, shall be calculated as a whole volume of catches in excess of the allowable bycatch.

The fact of making a large damage to fish stocks shall become a ground for coercive termination of the right for capture of aquatic bioresources classified as objects of fishery.

The above order shall not apply to the aquatic species registered in the nation's Red Book.