According to information reported by the press service of Kamchatka State Duma, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave an order to the Head of Russian State Fisheries Agency Mr. Andrey Krainy, to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Mr. Yury Trutnev and to the Minister on International Affairs Mr. Lavrov to prepare a set of documents on the complete ban of drift-nets in the Russian fisheries.

“It is not for nothing that drift nets are called “walls of death”: these nets stretching for many kilometers in the ocean become a barrier for spawning migration of salmon from the ocean to the rivers, - tells Konstantin Zgurovsky , the Head of WWF Russia Marine Programme. - Pacific salmons and marine mammals get caught in these nets, it includes such creatures as whales, dolphins, seabirds, - even such threatened species as Short-tailed Albatross”.

Moreover, it is the Sockeye Salmon that is the most valued fish species at the market, - and as a result all other catch from drift-nets is just discarded. According to experts estimates at least 60 thousand tons of fish are discarded annually.

Drift-net fishing has not only environmental, but also social negative impacts. These drift-nets become a barrier for fish on its way from ocean to the rivers where coastal fishing is carried by fishermen, including aboriginal fishermen, of Kamchatka. Supported by Coalition «Save the Salmon Together», set with help of WWF at the Kamchatka, coastal fishermen including aboriginal people are fighting already for several years for the ban on drift net fishing. The Coalition unites local NGOs, fishermen, and the representatives of Kamchatka legislative and executive authorities.

Large-scale drift net fishing is banned globally by the special UN Resolution № 46/215 on the consequences of pelagic drift net fishing for wildlife resources of the sea and the oceans, and also by the Convention signed between Russia, USA, Canada and Japan on the conservation of anadromous fish resources in the northern Pacific.

Starting from December 2008 WWF was collecting signatures in support of the ban on drift-net fishing. Full text of the Appeal, short video and detailed info on drift-net fishing problems can be found at the link at WWF site: http://www.wwf.ru/about/what_we_do/seas/sign_drifter/

WWF Review on “Commercial drift-net fishing for Pacific Salmon and its impact on marine ecosystems”: http://www.wwf.ru/resources/publ/book/115/