Kamchatka completes commercial fishing of salmon.

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, August 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Kamchatka
completes commercial fishing of salmon. By the end of the season the
fishermen came to the record of 238,410 tonnes of valuable fish. The
previous record of 202 tonnes was recorded here in 1928, the regional
Ministry of Fisheries reported on Friday.
"With the termination of fishing chum and pink salmon fishing in
Western Kamchatka, from August 18 the region imposed a ban on fishing in
the marine fisheries of the West-Kamchatka and Okhotsk sub-areas," the
region's Minister of Fisheries Vladimir Golitsyn said. In the Gulf of
Kamchatka, he said, fishing for Pacific salmon is stopped by majority of
marine shutters seines.
River fishing of salmon continues, fishing of silver salmon begins.
However, from August 22 traditional fishing will be banned for individuals
belonging to indigenous peoples within the boundaries of the district
Yelizovo region, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Viluchinsky urban districts.
This decision is caused by processes at caviar hatcheries and by providing
the passage to spawning coho salmon, whose numbers in the rivers of the
Avacha Bay are low, the ministry explained.
The total allowable catch of salmon in Kamchatka this year was
projected at 274,000 tonnes. There are more than 160 fishing enterprises
here. Most of the fish caught is sent outside the peninsula to other parts
of the country, delivered by sea to Vladivostok to be transported further
on to customers by railroads. An alternative way to transport fish from
Kamchatka to the mainland is by the Northern Sea Route. The first
refrigerated transport has arrived in St. Petersburg. About 45 tonnes of
valuable fish will be transported this way.
-0-kar/ast