Translated material
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The authorities of the Astrakhan region are trying to limit the number of fishermen in the Volga delta
The opening of the fishing season in the Astrakhan region, traditionally starting in early April, may be in jeopardy. As recently stated by representatives of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry, the Volga-Caspian Department of the Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo), under pressure from local authorities, is delaying the holding of competitions for the lease of fishing grounds for recreational fishing. Without agreements on the provision of fishing grounds concluded based on the results of competitions, tour operators will not be able to bring fans of amateur and sport fishing to the Volga estuary area.We are talking about the shallow-water zone of the Northern Caspian, most popular among clients of fishing travel agencies, which includes a system of sea bays and islands. This is where 80% of the sites for recreational and sport fishing are concentrated. And representatives of the profitable business - as the tour operators themselves note, “the demand for sport fishing is stable and has not fallen even during the crisis” - sounded the alarm. In particular, the Astrakhan Tourism Guild, which unites about 50 companies in the region, prepared a petition to the country's President Dmitry Medvedev criticizing the regional authorities. “The administration’s decision actually eliminates tourism in the region, which means 350 travel agencies and more than 7 thousand permanent workers. 300-350 thousand tourists come here annually, and the industry brings in about 1 billion rubles. from tax revenues, payments for government services for the distribution of quotas and industry investments,” tour operators complain.
At the same time, according to representatives of the tourism industry, amateur fishermen cannot cause serious damage to aquatic biological resources, the safety of which officials advocate, since they fish exclusively for sport, and many are guided by the principle of “caught, photographed, released.” In addition, representatives of the tourism industry fear a complete ban on fishing in the Volga delta front, citing a package of amendments prepared by the regional government to the fishing rules approved last year by Rosrybolovstvo in the Volga-Caspian fishery basin. It is noteworthy that in the current version of the rules, the Volga pre-estuary space is already a so-called “silence zone”, but only for representatives of industrial fishing. An exception has been made for recreational and sport fishing.
According to the Agency for Fisheries and Fish Farming of the Astrakhan Region, the regional authorities really intend to initiate significant changes in the regime of the presence of amateur fishermen in the delta front. According to officials, the anthropogenic load there is much greater than tour operators imagine - more than 1.5 million tourists come during the season. “We decided to somehow organize the water area in which the fish spawn and the young develop. We propose to allocate areas where it will be possible to fish so that these zones are not affected,” explains the regional administration, complaining that now in fish spawning areas “boats of amateurs and athletes are sailing around the clock.” The Lower Volga is one of the few places in the country where the so-called spawning ban is not currently in force, which implies an almost complete refusal to both fish and travel on motorized vessels. In addition, as the head of the regional agency for fisheries and fish farming, Vladimir Sanakin, told Vremya Novostey, by significantly reducing fishing sites, officials hope to bring out of the shadows numerous tourist centers that do not participate in the system of distributing fishing quotas. According to him, only about 40 bases officially document catch volumes, the rest are not yet subject to control.
One of the conditions for the possibility of fishing in certain areas in the Volga delta front will be the willingness of businesses to develop regional programs for replenishing fish stocks. The governor of the Astrakhan region, Alexander Zhilkin, announced this yesterday at a meeting with representatives of the tourism industry. According to him, “ten years ago there was much more fish and game in the region,” but today’s scarcity is alarming and suggests that “the tourism industry is developing in the wrong direction.” Mr. Zhilkin intends to “direct the tourism sector in the right direction” by giving carte blanche in the work to those business representatives who are ready to become partners with the authorities in fish reproduction - growing the fry to impressive sizes, reclaiming land and deepening canals.
The regional administration, in particular, plans that in just two years, fish reproduction will double and reach 30 thousand tons. Apparently, the efficiency of holding competitions depends on the readiness of tour operators to join officials’ projects. As Vladimir Sanakin assured the Vremya Novostey correspondent, “a compromise has already been found,” and tour operators will have the opportunity to organize fishing in the delta front, subject to the payment of a kind of “biological tax.” According to him, competitions for the distribution of fishing grounds should start in early February and end in May.
However, it seems that in any case, representatives of the tourism industry (according to various estimates, the number of tourist centers in the region reaches 600) will face a serious conflict of interests. As the letter from the Astrakhan Tourist Guild states, “it will affect not only hundreds of entrepreneurs and thousands of their employees, but also hundreds of thousands of Russians who prefer to spend their holidays in the Volga Delta.” “It is already clear how this ban will turn out in practice. Some people won’t go fishing, but there are many who won’t give up their favorite activity and will actively pay off the fisheries inspection and other inspectors. It is unlikely that such a scenario will help preserve aquatic biological resources, but it will greatly support corruption,” businessmen believe.