Japan secures salmon fishing quota in talks with Russia

Jiji-Press

17:00 JST, April 23, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japan and Russia have substantially agreed that Japan’s salmon fishing quota in the 200-nautical-mile zone around Japan for 2022 will be kept unchanged from 2021 at 2,050 tons, the Fisheries Agency announced in the small hours of Saturday.

The two countries are slated to sign a formal agreement on Monday, allowing Japanese fishermen to start salmon fishing in the area in early May before the peak fishing season.

Japan needs to obtain Russian permission to catch in Japanese waters fishes that are coming from Russian rivers.

The agreement came in online negotiations started on April 11, while Japan is imposing economic sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, in step with the United States and European allies.

Japan is set to pay between about ¥200 million and ¥300 million in “fishery cooperation fees” to Russia in 2022, depending on the actual amount of its catches. The lower limit was cut from ¥260 million in 2021. Japan’s payment in the previous year came to ¥260 million.

Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, the fishing rights for salmon and other fishes returning to the river from the sea to spawn are held by the country where the river is located.

On salmon fishing by Japanese fishing ships in the 200-nautical-mile zone around Russia, the two countries are arranging schedules for negotiations.