The new regulation will ban the industrial and coastal fishing of whales, dolphins and porpoises. In addition, in order to preserve and restore populations, the government is authorized to impose restrictions on fishing of these species in the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation including a total ban on fishing of certain marine mammals.
For this purpose, the deputies will table amendments to the federal laws "On the exclusive economic zone" and "On fishing and conservation of aquatic biological resources."
An explanatory note reads “the ban is due to the biological characteristics of these marine animals, as well as their significance for the marine ecosystems.”
The deputy Svetlana Bessarab commented at the plenary session of the State Duma that Russia has stopped coastal and industrial fishing of cetaceans since 1987, however, capture of dolphins and whales continues for cultural and educational purposes. “Capture of cetaceans for cultural and entertainment purposes has already been banned in more than 20 countries. The President of Russia welcomed the public initiative to ban capture of cetaceans for cultural and educational purposes at the session of the Human Rights Council on December 9. We are asking the State Duma to pass the corresponding bill into law,” she noted.
The deputy Vladimir Kashin added, in turn, that the proposed ban on capture of cetaceans for cultural and educational purposes is as important as the legislature adopted today. “At the same time, I would like to stress once again the importance of science. There are plenty research institutes in Russia that study aquatic mammals. We need to be very careful about imposing restrictions on using aquatic mammals for scientific purposes,” he added.
As a reminder, the decision to end fishing of cetaceans comes after the authorities had discovered a “whale prison” in the Srednyaya Bay located in the Primorsky Krai. 11 orcas and 90 belugas were held in the marine containment facility waiting for sale to Chinese dolphinariums and aquariums. The President of Russia intervened and the marine animals were released. After the "whale prison" scandal, the government was been told to improve the legislation to preclude a similar situation occurring in the future.
