“There are currently no alternative mechanisms in the actual legal framework for regulating the fishing activities of the parties in the Azov Sea. If Ukraine gives up from the concluding of the URC's bilateral protocols that regulate all current fisheries issues in the Azov Sea, it will jeopardize the work of our fishermen”, the ministry said. This issue concerns 90 enterprises, employing 4,000 fishermen. The fish caught in the Azov Sea is being sold on the domestic market in Ukraine, Minenergo reported.
On November 13, 2019, Ukraine and Russia will sign in an remote way a fisheries protocol for the Azov Sea, the press service of the Ministry of Energy and Environment of Ukraine informed.
“For the first time in the years of independence, the meeting of the Ukrainian - Russian Fisheries Commission (URC) on the allocation of fishing quotas in the Azov Sea will be held online on 13 November this year. The 2020 protocol will be signed through diplomatic channels”, the press release said.
The ministry noted that Ukraine may be deprived of its right to fish industrially if this document is not signed - without force superiority in the region, only the coastal zone can remain to the country for such fishing.
"There are currently no alternative mechanisms in the actual legal framework for regulating the fishing activities of the parties in the Azov Sea. If Ukraine gives up from the concluding of the URC's bilateral protocols that regulate all current fisheries issues in the Azov Sea, it will jeopardize the work of our fishermen”, the ministry said.
This issue concerns 90 enterprises, employing 4,000 fishermen. The fish caught in the Azov Sea is being sold on the domestic market in Ukraine, Minenergo reported.
The ministry's website states that the status of the Azov Sea is now determined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the agreement signed in 2003 by Ukraine and Russia on cooperation in the use of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait. Fisheries activities are regulated in accordance with the 1993 agreement signed by the URC.
The protocol for 2019 was signed in the end of February this year.
Remark*: Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine
Source: https://gordonua.com/news/politics/ukraina-i-rf-distancionno-podpishut-…