Catch of fish must be doubled by 2020

The Russian government is setting the task of doubling the catch of fish by the year of 2020, chairman of the State Committee on Fisheries Alexander Moiseyev said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti.

According to him, the present volume of catch, 3.5 million tons a year, is insufficient considering the fact that this volume amounted to 11.5 million tons only a decade ago. As Moiseyev said, "we have to regain the earlier lost positions" but admitted that it would not be easy to do so.

Moiseyev links the increase of the catch with the active resumption of the work to develop not only the Russian economic zones, but also of the open ocean and of the conventional and economic zones of other states.

Russia has of late signed two new agreements with Morocco and Mauritania on development of the fish reserves in their territorial waters. "Analogous agreements with quite a number of states of Latin America and Africa, specifically Chile, Peru and Guinea, are now being prepared, the head of the State Committee noted.

At the same time, it is impossible to decide the issues of boosting fish catch without a protectionism policy of the state and creation of conditions, which would make it interesting for industrialists to develop one or another resource. "Parallel with this, it is necessary to decide a number of other important issues, in particular the development of ship-building in Russia," Moiseyev emphasized.

According to him, the State Committee on Fisheries, jointly with the interested departments, is now engaged in preparing a concept of development of the fishery-industrial complex of the Russian Federation till the year of 2020, which it is supposed to submit for consideration by the government on July 17th this year.