Russia to begin auctioning commercial salmon fishing shares for the Baltic Sea
Photo: Maxim Korotchenko/TASSFor the first time since 2009, the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery will auction commercial salmon fishing shares today for the Baltic Sea.
The agency set a total allowable catch of 12.5 tons for the Gulf of Finland and 47.9 tons for the Baltic Sea in exchange for companies’ investments into domestic processing plants—based on International Council for the Exploration of the Sea’s (ICES) 2021 catch quota recommendations. Atlantic salmon share sales come in light of Russia modernizing and expanding its fishing industry and compensating for Pacific ecosystem changes that skewed salmon stock projections above the amount that was caught last year.
With the EU and Russia’s shared efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change on salmon migration, and their adherence to ICES’ recommendations, in the long-term, expect the possibility of Baltic states and Russia expanding existing cooperation around preserving the basin’s marine ecosystem within the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region framework. Following today’s auction and the peak of salmon fishing season this month, expect Russian salmon exports to increase, though commercial expansion into the Baltic Sea remains questionable as to whether the fragile Baltic-Russian relationship will improve around environmental cooperation or grow contentious.
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