Russia's Government approved rules for inshore quota and 10-year quota shares distribution

Under the order No.611 dated 15 August 2008 Russia's Government has approved rules for distribution of capture quotas for inshore fishery, www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) reports.

The inshore quotas will be distributed between the applicants registered in the respective province of the Russian Federation by means of fixing the quota shares for a period of 10 years. Definition of shares shall be carried out by the executive body of the Russian Federation, while the shares of quotas of catadromous and transboundary species shall be specified by the Federal Fisheries Agency.

The applicant claiming a quota share shall submit the respective application form accompanied with the required documents to the authorized body from 15 August 2008 to 30 September 2008.

Within 21 days from the applications' deadline the authorized body shall approve the lists of applicants who will get the quota shares and who will not. The lists will be published on the official internet site of the authorized body within 5 days from the date of their approval.

Within 15 days from the date of approval of the applicants' list the authorized body shall calculate the shares, approve the share of each particular applicant and forward the corresponding decision to the Federal Fisheries Agency so that the respective note could be made in the State Fishery Register.

The applicant's share will be calculated as a ratio of the volume of the company's inshore catches in the inland marine waters, the territorial sea, on the continental shelf and in the exclusive economic zone of Russia during four preceding years for the purpose of inshore fishery to the sum of inshore fish catches in the corresponding areas of all the approved applicants during four preceding years and it will be approved in percentage with 3 digits after the decimal point.

According to the shares, the authorized body shall sign quota share agreements with the applicants for the period of 10 years.

Under the agreements the authorized body shall annually distribute the inshore quotas until 30 December, but not earlier than the date of inshore quotas approval.

The inshore quotas in respect to each applicant shall be calculated as product of the quota share and the inshore quota approved by the Federal Fisheries Agency for the respective fishing area and species.

The authorized body shall issue a legal act on inshore quotas distribution between the applicants.