Emergency on Pollack Fishing in the Bering Sea

The bid for the private quota of the pollack fishing in the Russian Bering Sea, which is planned in next month, will be difficult.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) said yesterday that, among the 11 super trawl-fishing boats of 7,800 tons, which had been interned in the Busan Port because of their repairing charges and port dues, 4 vessels returned to Russia recently, and the other 7 ships are going to return to Russia before long.

These ships are likely to participate in the bid for the private quota of the pollack fishing in Russian sea.

If they, each of them has almost 10,000 tons of taking capacity, participate in the first bid, which is exclusively for the Russian fishing boats, the Russian fishing vessels will take 60-70 percent of the whole quota, 172,000 tons, and it will give a blow to the bid of the foreign fishing ships, which will be held only with the rest of the quota.

If the situation goes worse, Korean companies should compete against Japanese and Polish companies for a quota of 80,000 tons, which is only half of Korean companies` allotment in last year.

The Russian government will raise fishing fees, which was 108 dollars per ton in 2001.

Therefore, the Korean government will send a delegation headed by the Assistant Minister Park Jae-Young to Russia from March 3-7 in order to ask her support.

Assistant Minister Park said, “We will discuss alternative measures, such as the participation of foreign fishing ships in the first bid or the allotment of a certain quota for the foreign fishing ships.”

Kwang-Am Cheon iam@donga.com