Innovations of Fisheries Regulations

Deputies of the Supreme Council Galina Antyufeyeva, Oleg Petrik and Stepan Stepanov initiated amendments to the Administrative Offenses Code concerning the rules of fishing. The law-in-draft was developed on the basis of a request from the State Service for Environmental Control and Environmental Protection. In law enforcement practice, there were discrepancies in what is a gross violation of the rules of fishing. The Deputies proposed to give a new definition: the concept of "gross violation of fishing rules" means fishing in places of permanent ban during the spawning period; fishing with prohibited tools or methods; fishing on water bodies of territories belonging to the nature reserve fund.

In addition, the law-in-draft proposes to weaken responsibility for violation of fishing rules by establishing such a measure as a warning. As the authors note, fishermen are held accountable even for minor offenses today. Fines amount to 20-50 RU of the minimum wage (from 368 to 920 rubles). This does not correspond to the principle of justice, the deputies of the Legislation Committee consider.

The opinion of the authors of the initiative was supported at the plenary session in the first reading. The relevant committee will continue working on the law-in-draft.