RUSSIAN STRATEGY FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABLE USE OF AQUATIC BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF PROVIDING THE POPULATION WITH PROTEIN NUTRITION

Abstract

The article examined national and international mechanisms for achieving the goals of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science and overcoming challenge 3 – “sustainable nutrition of the world’s population”. It was noted that the key mechanism for the implementation of the Russian Federation’s policy in the field of conservation and rational use of aquatic biological resources (ABR) is the development of the total allowable catch (TAC) and recommended catch (RC) of ABR stocks and monitoring their compliance. The objectivity of the calculation of TAC and RC is the key to the long-term sustainable use of aquatic biological resources. Such objectivity is ensured by Russian fisheries science with the involvement of fundamental research data. The regulatory principles applied by international regional fisheries management organizations are similar to national ones. In international regulation, mathematical modeling of the stocks’ state is somewhat more important, and the results of direct assessments by methods of resource research, on the contrary, are taken into account only as an indirect indicator of the stocks’ state. There are still a number of areas that require additional study in order to ensure long-term sustainable balanced use of ABR:

• relationship between the biomass of commercial species and short-term and long-term climate and oceanographic changes;
• involvement of new species in the fishery;
• development of technologies for the processing of ABR in order to more fully extract valuable components, such as trace elements and omega-3 fatty acids (recommendation of the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences);
• improvement and development of environmentally friendly fishing gear.