Audit Chamber auditor Mikhail Beskhmelnitsyn intends to show the Norwegians that Russian fish appetites are within bounds.
Photo: Alexey Kudenko
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Audit Chamber, Norwegians Counts Fish
The Audit Chamber wants to show the Norwegians that Russian fishermen are not exceeding their limits on cod and haddock. For that purpose, the Chamber will set up a joint supervisory program this year. The possibility of limiting herring imports from Norway will provide that country with an additional stimulus to participation in the program.
Herring is one of Norway's main exports to Russia, worth over $220 million per year, and the Russian State Fishing Commission wants to curtail, since imports now account for 35 percent of the Russian market, 10 percent over the permissible limit. The deadline for limiting Norwegian fish imports to Russia has been moved from January 25 to March of this year, and it could potentially be moved even farther back.
The Audit Chamber is to sign an agreement with Norway on management of the bioresources of the Barents and Norwegian Seas today. A Russian-Norwegian commission set up in 1975 sets the yearly fishing limits in the two seas for themselves and the other countries that fish those waters. Those countries include Iceland, France, Portugal and several others. Fourteen percent of the catch is set aside for third countries, and Russia and Norway split the remainder evenly.
Norway regularly accuses Russia of exceeding its limit of fish, a charge that Russia denies. The Audit Chamber's Mikhail Odintsov and Mikhail Beskhmelnitsyn say that the real problem is with the sea boundaries, since the countries disagree sharply over them. Furthermore, overfishing by third countries is a serious problem.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 29, 2008
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