28 Dec 2022 12:10

Russia won't start fishing Antarctic krill before 2025 - agency

MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) - Russian fishermen will not start catching Antarctic krill before 2025, Ilya Shestakov, head of the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo), said at a press conference.

"The timeframe [for the start of krill fishing], taking into account the construction of special vessels, is probably not earlier than 2025," he said.

Shestakov said a krill trawler had already been designed. A company which plans to operate in the Antarctic zone plans to build two ships. "I think if these are really powerful and good vessels, and the design that the company showed suggests that there will be just such vessels, then they will be able to catch about 200,000 tonnes of krill," he said.

The resumption of Antarctic krill fishing and the construction of krill trawlers is included in the fishery complex development strategy to 2030. The planned catch by then is 450,000 tonnes.

Currently, Norway, China, Chile, and South Korea are actively involved in krill fishing.

At the end of 2019, for the first time in 17 years, the Russian research vessel Atlantida studied krill stocks in the Antarctic. Researchers found that the estimated biomass in this area is greater now than it was 17 years ago. The expedition, which concluded on May 5, 2020, the Fisheries Agency ordered the preparation of recommendations for sustainable krill fishing in the Antarctic.

The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources estimates that a total of about 5 million tonnes of krill can be harvested in the Antarctic annually.

Russia annually imports about 700,000 tonnes of krill.