Some 400 fishermen on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula rallied near the building of the local administration on Friday

Friday, November 22, 2019

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Some 400 fishermen on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula rallied near the building of the local administration on Friday, to demand redistribution of salmon fishing quotas and resignation of governor Mikhail Mashkovtsev. So far, they have been unable to secure a meeting with local authorities, chairwoman of the regional union of fish industry employees Irina Orlova told Itar-Tass. They decided to ask federal government bodies to "introduce external financial control in the region." Also, a decision was made to request the Pubic Chamber to help the fishermen in resolving their problem. Fishermen calculated the losses caused to their companies and budgets of all levels as a result of unfair distribution of quotas in the past few years. The budget "lost more than two billion roubles, fishermen did not receive some one billion roubles of wages, while fishing companies' earnings fell short of more than five billion roubles," Orlova said. The fishermen gathered close to representatives of fishing companies in a tent camp who have been picketing the local government building since June 5, demanding "fair and legal distribution of fishing quotas." Representatives of indigenous peoples of the north have joined them. The Maritime Territory's union of fish industry employees sided with the protesters. The information about the situation in the region's fish industry, gathered by Kamchatka fishermen, "has been passed to the Russian Prosecutor General," the union leader said. The local administration insists that it distributes fishing quotas in line with the legislation.

Bookmark Some 400 fishermen on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula rallied near the building of the local administration on Friday