Plans for an upcoming joint research on Pacific salmon

On August 28, 2018, Ilya Shestakov, Russian Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Head of the Federal Agency of Fisheries, held a meeting with Kevin Stringer, Canadian Associate Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, on the margins of the 23rd North Atlantic Fisheries Ministers’ Conference in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.

According to the press service of Russia’s Federal Agency of Fisheries, the two officials discussed common issues in the field of fisheries. A special stress was laid on the existing international practices of preventing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In addition to the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, Ilya Shestakov mentioned the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of Canada and the Government of the Russian Federation on Cooperation as an important document for the Pacific Ocean.

An agreement to conduct a joint research on salmon migration and reproduction in the North Pacific, reached in May 2018, was again reconfirmed. The Russian side will provide three scientific vessels for Russian, Canadian and South Korean scientists who intend to collect all the necessary data. They will be joined by two more vessels – from the U.S. and Japan. “It is planned to examine in detail one of the critical stages of the Pacific salmon life cycle – wintering in open waters of the North Pacific,” concludes the Russian Deputy Minister.