The Russian Federation Ministry of Agriculture has developed a draft order, which sets limits on the smelt catch in the West Siberian fisheries basin in 2020. The document has already been published on the draft regulatory legal acts federal portal.
“The Asian toothy smelt commercial fishing in the rivers of the Yenisei river basin of the Krasnoyarsk region should be banned until December 31, 2020,” the draft order says. It is proposed to entrust control over its implementation to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, the head of the Federal Fisheries Agency, Ilya Shestakov, reports the Parliamentary Newspaper.
Experts do not comment on the initiative perspective. It should be reminded that a similar experiment in the northern territories failed in 2019. The Ministry of Agriculture banned fishing in the Yenisei from April 20 to June 20. Significant fines were imposed not only for catching valuable breeds, but also for catching non-valuable fish species. The smelt, which is the only type of available aquatic biological resources for the local indigenous population during this period also got under the ban. A two-month catch prohibition could lead to the unemployment increase in Taimyr villages, job loss and the economic entities liquidation as the smelt remains the only species allowed for fishing in the Yenisei after zeroing quotas for muksun, white salmon and arctic omul.
The residents of the northern territories of the region, for whom aquatic biological resources are the basis of existence, appealed to the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk region to settle the situation. Thanks to the efforts of the deputy corps, the region government and the governor the ban on fishing in the Yenisei was lifted on April 3 last year.
Text: Victor Tsarev, Photo: Denis Kozhevnikov
