SUMMARY 02 01

Eastern Baltic — Example of Good Neighbourliness and Constructive Interregional Cooperation in Europe
Sergey Romanov, Senior Cancellor of RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department

In view of many parameters the Baltic region has got the exclusive importance not only for creation of the safety and trustworthiness zone in the North of Europe but also for development of the Pan-European integration processes including those on the regional level. One of the examples of successful international cooperation can be constructive and mutually beneficial neighbourly relations between adjusting territories of Russia and Finland which during many years successfully cooperate in economic, humanitarian and cultural spheres and constructively solve many problems of a mutual interest.
Lately one of the priorities of the Russian-Finnish relations has become development of the direct practical cooperation between Finland and S.- Petersburg and the Leningrad region.
The legal basis for the development of the frontier cooperation is intergovernmental Russian-Finnish agreement of January 20, 1992 which for the first time in the Russian practice of foreign affairs gave the four subjects of the Russian Federation the right to develop direct contacts with the governmental structures of foreign countries including possibility of creating joint working groups and signing concrete statutory acts.
In accordance with the agreement working group "The Leningrad region — the Kyumi Province" was formed in 1992 and in the recent years it has been actively promoting cooperation in such spheres as environment protection and radiation safety, agriculture, development of small and medium business, cooperation of legal authorities and salvage services, social sphere and cultural exchange.
Principally new elements were brought into the frontier cooperation after Finland became the EU member. The policy being practiced by the EU and aimed at delegating powers to the bodies of local self-government (in Finland - communal regional unions) provided new partners for the Russian side in the sphere of the frontier cooperation who are mainly engaged in the European programs on technical assistance and are the main link with the European structures and financial institutes.
In 1996 mainly thanks to the assistance of the Finnish regional authorities TACIS program was amended and it was allowed to spend up to 10% for investments in the frontier areas. Today within TACIS and INTERREG-2 they work on projects relating to the development of transport infrastructure and environment protection. Also other projects in the sphere of promotion of small and medium business and planning of usage of land resources are being agreed upon.
Establishment of free customs zones could also be a considerable contribution into the development of contiguous relations. There is the first experience in this field - it is formation of a free customs zone of production type in the city of Vyborg on the basis of Vyborg Instrument-Making Factory, Vyborg Shipbuilding Factory and Vyborg Sea Trade Port.
The new direction in the development of international and external economic links of S.-Petersburg being the RF subject is its participation in the work of regional organizations of the Baltic states. Connections of S.-Petersburg and Finland are also realized within the framework of the S.-Petersburg - Finnish subgroup for the cooperation of the contiguous regions which takes an active part in the work of the Intergovernmental Russian-Finnish Group for the cooperation of the contiguous regions whose role is to optimize the combination of the state coordination and assistance with the regional interests and initiatives and to provide favourable conditions for realization of the approved programs. Between 1993 and 1996 within the framework of this subgroup 20 joint projects were developed 50% of which related to ecology.
The priorities of further short-term cooperation of Russia and Finland have been established: development of transport communication between the two countries, environment protection, development of port infrastructure of the Baltic Sea, scientific-technical cooperation. The main priority is given to development of transport. Today already the work is being carried out on creation of a motorway Helsinki - S.-Petersburg - Moscow, of a circle road around S.-Petersburg, etc.
The possibility of joint work of the authorities and business structures of S.-Petersburg and Finland is being explored for the purpose of establishment of an international inter-bank centre for serving monetary flows in the North-Western region, of promotion of minor aviation, river tourism, of formation of a guaranteeing fund for attraction of foreign investments into the economics of S.-Petersburg.
On the 15th of January 1998 in S.-Petersburg there was held the 5th meeting of the co-chairmen of S.-Petersburg - Finnish subgroup for cooperation of the contiguous regions at which the approval was granted to the Draft of program of the frontier cooperation between S.-Petersburg and Finland for the period of 1998-2000.

Taxation: which type of charter to choose?
Konstantin Kon'kov, chief auditor of OOO Otsenka-Consulting, chief lecturer of the KTSU
Sergey Baranov, lawyer, member of the Kaliningrad Regional Board of Lawyers

The activity of maritime companies is one of the complicated sectors of the taxation. The problems arise not only due to the complicacy of the applicable laws but also because the authorities do not provide clear cut and comprehensive explanations. Charters are used by maritime organizations most frequently but their taxation still causes questions. The authors of the article give the comparative description of the taxation regimes which are applied to the charter relations. The civil code provides for two types of charter:
1. Giving of the capacity of the transport ship for one or more voyages. In this case not the ship itself but its capacity is given for the use, i.e. these relations are a kind of transportation deal when the carrier delivers the cargo to the said port and transfers it to the consignee and the sender pays the agreed fee for the transportation of the cargo. Thus, the remuneration under such a charter deal (the contract for the maritime transportation of cargo) is a payment for the transportation services.
2. Transfer of the transport ship into the temporary ownership and/or for the use. In this case the ship itself is given, i.e. this is leasing deal. The Trade Seafaring Code of RF contains two types of chartering: when the ship is chartered for a certain period of time (time-charter) and when the ship is chartered without a crew (bareboat-charter). The remuneration under this type of charter (contracts for time-chartering and bareboat-chartering) is a payment for the lease of the ship.
The authors explain the peculiarities of levying the profit tax and VAT on various types of charter.

Grenadier of Middle Atlantic Ridge — Promising Fishery Object
Victor Anikeev, Sergey Lebedev, OOO Rybinfoservice

Round-nose grenadier is widely distributed in the Northern Atlantic and inhabits continental slopes of Europe and Northern America and also the submarine mountains of the Middle Atlantic Ridge (MAR).
In 1970-s the average yearly national catch of grenadier in the North-Western Atlantic was about 30.500 tons. In 1980-s the fishery began to be regulated on the international level and the Russian quota would not exceed 5.000 tons. At the present time Russia is not allocated any grenadier quota.
Fishery of grenadier on the European continental slope is conducted by fishermen of Norway, France, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, the Faeroes Islands and, to less extent, of Scotland, England and Spain. The total catch in 90-s varied from 0.700 to 15.000 tons, the maximum level was reached in 1992. In this region Russia does not obtain quota either that is why it is not reachable for Russian fishermen.
The underwater mountains of MAR are located beyond the limits of the economic zones and grenadier fishery in this region has not been put under regulation yet. In 1993 the European Council organized a commission and adopted a program presupposing, in the end of the day, assessment of the deep water fish stocks. It is planned to use the results of the studies for introduction of quotas for deep water fish in the North-Eastern Atlantic including grenadier of MAR.
The priority of finding and exploitation of grenadier stocks in MAR belongs to the Russian fishermen. In 1972-1973 exploratory vessels discovered commercial stocks of grenadier in the northern part of MAR. Main exploratory works were carried out in 70-80-s by numerous expeditions organized by Zaprybpromrazvedka, Sevrybpromrazvedka, AtlantNIRO and PINRO.
The overall length of the northern part of MAR where there are commercial grenadier stocks (in latitudes 48o - 61o North) stretches for about 1.500 miles. There are about 150 underwater mountains with depths less than 1.500 m known in this part. The most productive among them are about 20 with depths less than 1,000 m (about 90% of the caught fish).The differences in fish sizes, peculiarities of structure of underwater mountains, dissimilarity of oceanographic and weather conditions were the basis for region ranging of this fishery area. It includes the following sections:

• - the Northern complex — 1 stretches from the Icelandic zone to latitude 55o North. Here they fish for grenadier of various sizes 30-90 cm long;
• - the Northern complex — 2 lies between latitudes 53o and 55o North. The basis of the stocks here is usually small grenadier 30-60 long;
• - the Southern complex is situated between latitudes 48o and 51o North. It is the warmest part of MAR. Here the biggest grenadier - 60-95 cm - is caught.

Grenadier is a member of Macrouridae family which is relative to cods. The experiments showed a complete absence of parasites in muscles and only in the abdominal cavity in rare cases there are isolated Anisakis larvae which are removed when cutting or die when freezing. The liver is almost free from nematodes. The fact that the fishery grounds are distant from the coasts and the habitat is located in deep waters means that the fish is ecologically pure. The organic toxicants almost never are detected and the content of heavy metals in muscles and liver is less than that one of cod. Grenadier is a low-protein and low-fat fish with tender white flesh which is a bit sweet, has some shrimp touch and is almost free from the specific "fish" smell. Medical-biological experiments proved favourable influence of grenadier on human metabolic processes, determined harmlessness and biological value of the fish.
During the fishery grenadier is cut into carcass or filet. The output of finished product depends on the fishery subregion, fishery season, age and physiological condition of fish. The head amounts for 32-47% of the total fish, entrails - for 4-11%, tail - about 5% and fins - 2-2.4%. Only 40-58% is left for the carcass. The eatable output is 30-39%. Muscles contain 83.6-88.2% of moisture, 9.7-15.1% of protein, 0.9-1.3% of ash and 0.8-3% of fat. Cutting wastes are used for fish meal production.
The national fishing fleet began exploitation of grenadier stocks in 1974. The most numerous expeditions (up to 20 ships) worked in 1974-1975. During this period maximum catch levels were reached - 18.500 and 29.900 tons respectively. Later the Russian fishing efforts began decreasing, the number of ships in expeditions would go from 5-11 down to 2-5 and rarely there were 7 trawlers. The yearly catch of grenadier in MAR varied from 2.000 to 8.000-12.000 tons. It was caused by both the absence of reliable navigation systems and the economic reasons. In 1993 the Russian fleet almost stopped fishing for grenadier on MAR.
Bearing in mind the difficulty of grenadier fishery and its expensiveness one should take into account the following positive points:

• - relative proximity of the fishery grounds to the base ports;
• - location of the fishery grounds beyond the economic zones and, consequently, absence of fishery regulation;
• - stability of fish resources;
• - grenadier products are ecologically pure and in certain demand.

The experience of organization of fishing expeditions to MAR proves that the trawl catch on the submarine under water mountains of MAR can be year round and the existing practice of spring-summer fishery relates to an increase of storm activity in autumn-winter period. The optimum number of trawlers is 5-7. To increase the efficiency of the fishery it is necessary to install the technological equipment for grenadier cutting. The productivity of fishing can reach 15-18 tons per day in autumn-winter period and 20-22 tons per day in summer.

Yuriy Sinel'nik: We have created new game rules

The article contains the first part of the interview with the former Head of Goskomrybolovstvo Yuriy Sinel'nik aiming at evaluating the results of his activity in the position. According to him the main achievement of the two-year being in the office has been change of the system of distribution of the resources. Previously there was no clear and strict method which could eliminate the administrative abuses, i.e. corruption, in the distribution system both on federal and local levels. The state used to distribute the resources gratis. But further it was up to the governmental official to decide whom to give a quota to and whom not to give, how big portion to give, etc. The practice was that the fishing organizations "stimulated" the officials with the help of gifts, bribes. In fact, they paid for the resources and this payment was much more than it could be if the resources were to be distributed openly. The task was to eliminate the causes of corruption and create new rules of the game. The essence of the new system is that now the state receives payments. The companies obtain resources having paid for them at the auction openly and do not depend any more on any official. Nobody can take the resources from them. They have full right to catch the resources using their own fleet. The mechanism introduced by Sinel'nik's team eliminates participation of the intermediaries. Participants are those who have fleet. Fish should not be gratis. And the money for it should go not to the officials or fish mafia but to the state budget. The resources must do good to the whole country and not just to some people.
Another problem is that for the last decade the sector has been working not having the law regulating fisheries. Sinel'nik and his team studied the experience of the foreign countries and with the support of legal, sectoral experts and people involved in fisheries, scientists, shipbuilders, and many other specialists from the related spheres developed a law meeting the long term tendencies of fishery development. And for the first time in the history of Russia they managed to get the Law about Fishery through the State Duma. The Federation Council (the Senate) has not approved the law yet but in the present situation their approval of the law is a matter of time since the main provision - fish auctions - has been already put into practice by means of the Governmental resolutions.

Last border-line of disgraced industry
Oleg Sadykhov, OOO SRK Maritime Industry

The future of the fishery industry is in vague. This year is deciding as it is planned to put the industry under the jurisdiction of 3 or 4 government departments and in this way to make it be forgotten. Such a result is very possible since the Russian Government simply is not interested in the sector which, in fact, is not existent. Also, the audit of Goskomrybolovstvo (Fishery Ministry of RF) carried out by the Accounting Chamber of RF revealed numerous infringements in the financial sphere and distribution of quotas.
The decision to initiate the auction sale of quotas is both economically and strategically weak. It is a right thing to sell fish at auctions but the fish should be already caught. The mistake is that the auction sale of quotas for catching can only undermine the marine resources and also denationalize export which may turn out to be under the control of international organizations doing with biological resources. Any incorrect forecast put into the basis of TAC will lead to the situation when the companies in every way and by all means will try to return the money paid for the quotas. Besides, it opens the gates for the large-scale poaching. The fish does not carry a mark saying if it has been caught within the paid for quotas or beyond their limits. So that to produce the planned volumes fishermen will forge catching reports. Life has already proved it.
The author believes that there should be a quota system but it should consist of two types of quotas - scientific and commercial. Scientific quotas should be given only to scientific and exploratory institutions not being involved in the commercial fishery activity. These catching quotas shall not be transferred or sold to the third parties. The volume of the scientific quotas shall be more or less equal to the volumes indicated in the scientific and exploratory plans.
Commercial quotas should be distributed according to the common traditional rules among vessels which are or will be ready to go catching by certain time. But the said rules should be enhanced by strict requirements to be applied to those willing to obtain quotas and sell their production. 20% of produced fish or its equivalent price shall be given to the state (as payment for the resources and their reproduction) and 80% the companies shall be able to sell through auctions. So that to obtain the quota apart from the traditional application forms the companies should present a feasibility substantiation of the required quota volume. In this case every enterprise will be able to estimate the potential of the own development and plan the dislocation of its fleet so that to operate it most efficiently. The auctions for fish sales should be held only on the territory of Russia in the producing regions. Sales of fish sold beyond the framework of auctions shall be considered illegal and the infringers shall be penalized for the amount equal to the price of the sold production. Fish gone through the first-hand auction sale goes to the secondary market to be freely traded. Also strict monitoring measures should be introduced for the proper control over the fish caught in the Russian EEZ and movements of fishing and transport vessels in the EEZ and foreign ports.

Russian Purse Tuna Fishery in Atlantic Ocean
Gennadiy Boudylenko, Chief Researcher of AtlantNIRO Fish Resources Laboratory, Candidate of Biology

It is now more than twenty years since the Russian seiners began industrial purse fishing for tuna in the Atlantic Ocean. The article tells about the history and today’s situation of this active, highly productive tuna fishery with maximum yield.
At the present time the purse tuna fishery in the Atlantic Ocean is conducted by the fleet consisting of seven medium-capacity ships belonging to JSC "KRK Zapryba" which had been bareboat-chartered to joint-venture "Vals International Holding" and which in its turn chartered them to English company "Kasomo International Ltd.".
As from 1973 AtlantNIRO started regular scientific-research cruises on the Nekton which was equipped with a tuna purse seine. Between 1973 and 1979 for the purpose of finding out of purse fishery potential they surveyed the regions in the Eastern-Tropical part of the Atlantic between Morocco and Angola.
The results of the above turned out to be one of the main reasons when it was decided to begin building the national purse tuna fleet in 1979. The same year Kaliningrad received the first vessel of a big tuna seiner type the Rodina (project of Giprorybflot V-406), with capacity of 1200 tons, built in Poland. By 1982 the Kaliningrad Base of the Trawl Fleet had 4 more its sister ships. In the same period medium tuna seiners of MTS the Tibiya type (project of Lenkuznitsa 1348) arrived, capacity — 250 tons, built on the yard in Nikolaev. In total Kaliningrad received 11 medium-capacity vessels. Also the Western basin became a registration point for 5 BTSs of Polish make and 3 BTSs of the Kauri type built in Spain. The fleet consisted of 19 tuna seiners. BTSs of the Kauri type arrived in 1990 and were straight away sent to fish in the Indian ocean.
The main region of the fishing activity of the national vessels lies in the Central-Eastern Atlantic where tuna catches amount for 70-80% of the total catch in the whole ocean.
During the first three years the tuna catches were small and of purely experimental character. Till 1985 the annual increase in catches was due to arrival of new vessels, obtaining of experience by the crews, improvement of tactics and technique of catching and development of fishery grounds in offshore parts of the ocean and, in particular, in the economic zone of the Republic of Sierra-Leone. By 1985 the catches reached 7.300 tons per year. Further (1986-1987) the level was going down due to conversion of some of large-capacity seiners to the western part of the Indian Ocean. As from 1988 the catch level again goes up thanks to the rational organization of fishery and reaches its maximum - 8.500 tons - in 1990. After 1991 there came a decrease again related to the break-up of the USSR and reorganization of the national fishery industry. In the next years the catches level gradually goes up and in 1995 it reached 5.000 tons and in 1998 - 7.900 tons. These 20 years data proves that the reason for decrease in the level of catches was of organizational nature and not related to the state of the resource base.
As for the fishery grounds, during the last years the national tuna fleet has been fishing in the economic zone of Sierra-Leone and offshore part of the ocean. The optimum results reached by purse seiners are following: the average annual catch per vessel is 1.000 - 1.100 tons, the average day production is 6-8 tons.
The species structure is of interest. The basis of catches is yellowtail (Thunnus Albacores) and stripped tuna (Katsuwonus Pelamis) which amount for about 80% of all catches. The price for these two species on the international market varies between USD 500 and 1000 per ton depending on weight. The highest level of catch was registered in the economic zone of Sierra-Leone (1997-1998) where yellowtail amounts for 95% of the total catch.
In the last years tuna fishery in the Atlantic Ocean has been conducted by about 100 countries with various fishing gear: purse seines, drift nets, trolls, traps, gillnets, trawls, etc., among which the first two are most productive, especially purse seines (presently Russia is engaged only in purse seine fishing) which amounts for two thirds of all catches. The yearly production is 400.000-500.000 tons — 13% of the world output. Russian catches amount only for 1.6-1.7% of this volume. Leaders are Spain and France with catching levels of 120.000 and 66.000 tons respectively.
Rounding the review of the today's state of the national tuna fishery it is worth noting that at the present time it is only specialized purse seine fishing having seasonal character although if organized properly it could be year round. The fishery regions do not change and there is no tendency for expansion. The fleet sustains huge time losses - up to 175 days - due to various operations not relating directly to the fishery. In this respect there is a big potential for increasing the productivity of tuna fishery on account of purely organizational improvements, of conversion of the fleet for the year round operation and exploration of new fishery grounds.
Also it should not be forgotten that the fleet needs to be renewed as many vessels will soon reach 20 years age.

Shrimp Stocks Situation and Shrimp Fishery OFF North-Western African Coast
L. Romenskiy, Researcher of AtlantNIRO

Due to its good consumer properties shrimp is in a high demand on the world market and is widely used in the dietary menu for several diseases and also for rehabilitation of operated patients. Shrimp is processed into frozen, dried, pickled, canned products and food meal. The prices for the main Western-African species vary between USD 3.7-11.8 (for gamba) and USD 3.8-16.6 (for pink and tiger species) per 1 kilo and depend on the fishery object and its size group. The price includes the product cost, insurance and transportation expenses.
Shrimp gatherings off the North-Western coasts of Africa — in our fishermen’s traditional fishery grounds — are within the economic zones and their catch is licensed. Out of 39 marketable shrimp species living in the region only five species from 3 ecological groups have a commercial value.
The pink (Penaeus Notialis) and tiger (Penaeus Kerathurus) shrimp goes under the group of shrimp inhabiting depths of 50-60 m. Its sizes are between 9 and 19 cm but the catches mainly consist of 10-14 cm objects. Shrimp of the shelf edge is represented by gamba (Parapenaeus Longirostris) which inhabits depths of 50 - 380-500 m. The continental slope as much as 400-110 m deep is inhabited by listado (Aristeus Antennatus or A. Varidens) and royal shrimp (Plesiopenaeus Edwardsianus). The sizes of deep-water shrimp in catches fluctuate between 7 and 20 cm but mainly they are 9-14 cm. The specialized shrimp fishery in this region is based mainly on pink shrimp and gamba.
The total yearly catch of shrimp in the region from the Moroccan coast to the estuary of the Kongo river increased from 33.900 to 55.700 tons in the period of 1980-1997. The cumulative catch of the national fleets of the coastal countries during this period grew as much as 3.6 times and reached 45.600 tons thanks to the governmental investments into the coastal fishery which resulted in a decrease of the production of the foreign fleets. In 1997 it was 10.900 tons of which deep-water shrimp accounts for 65%. The shrimp fishery in the Central-Eastern Atlantic is conducted by the vessels from Spain, Greece, France, Portugal, Egypt, China and Russia.
The basis of the catch consists of shallow-water pink shrimp and to less extent - of tiger shrimp. During the last 27 years the catch of these species increased from 11.200 to 29.700 tons. Deep-water gamba is of minor importance. The production of this shrimp in 1994-1997 remained on the level of 7.100-9.700 tons. The remaining 15.000-17.000 tons in the fishery statistics are referred to as "shrimp" which most probably applies mainly to the pink shrimp.
The shrimp fishery is mostly developed in Nigeria, Senegal and Morocco. The total yearly catch in these counties amounts to 60% of the catch of all the coastal countries. The article tells about the shrimp resource status and fishery peculiarities and potential in Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra-Leone and Nigeria.

Baltic Whitefish — From Artificial Reproduction to Restoration of Fishery Number
Aleksey Sergeev, the Chief Fish-Breeder of Zapbaltrybvod

Among the fishing species in the Kaliningrad waters the anodromic fish such as salmon, sea trout, whitefish, eel and others are especially valuable.
The catch of the valuable anodromic species in our bays in 1960-s constituted about 15% of the total catch. But by today all these species have lost their fishery importance due to several factors the main reason for the decrease in their number being destruction of the conditions of their natural reproduction due to intensive pollution of the environment and also construction of the objects of power engineering on rivers.
There is no fish-breeding factory in the Kaliningrad region which would be engaged in the reproduction of valuable fish species. But in our region there is a number of objective prerequisites for development of the system of fish stocks reproduction. Among them:

• - availability of highly qualified specialists - fishermen, technologists, ichthyologists, fish-breeders;
• - availability of highly productive water bodies whose efficiency could be improved on account of proper reorganization of the fishery basis;
• - wild populations of the anadromic fish have been preserved;
• - availability of places suitable for construction of fish-breeding factories.

Apart from that there are some objective negative reasons which should speed up the urgent development of the reproduction system:

• - the process of ichthyocene degradation on certain stages can become practically irreversible;
• - natural populations of some of the anadromic species are at the edge of extinction.

At the meeting of the interested parties which was held by Zapbaltrybvod in 1995 the perspective program of development of the system of fish stocks artificial reproduction in the region was composed. The program provided for the priority directions in the development of the system. The key program points became measures for establishment of fish-breeding factories specializing at releasing valuable fry into the natural water bodies and also for development of feed production facilities for the fish industry in the Kaliningrad region.
The time has passed but the principal points of the program remained unchanged. Zapbaltrybvod is taking measures for putting them into existence. Baltic whitefish is one of the species under the program. It is from the salmonidae order. It fattens in the sea and comes to spawn in the Kurshskiy Bay. Spawning takes place in the end of autumn - beginning of winter and only in this period the whitefish is available for catching because when in the sea it does not form catching stocks. As for consumption — it is eatable either boiled or fried but is mostly used being salted (low salt content), smoked and dried. Whitefish products have very high quality.
The catches of whitefish were at maximum levels in 1950-1960s — up to 60 tons. But as from 1970s they began decreasing. It turned out that efficiency of its natural reproduction in the bay is very low due to considerable pollution of the bay waters and big quantities of spawn perish in the spawning grounds. Thus in result of fishing activity and unfavourable environment Baltic whitefish as a biological species has become endangered. Due to this in 1985 the fishing ban was introduced for the period of 5 years. It resulted in some stabilization of the situation which is, nevertheless, still crucial.
At the present time there is no specialized whitefish fishery in the bay. Instead the experimental catching has been introduced with the annual limit of 7 tons. It is performed under the strict control of the fishing authorities.
But as the practice shows it is not possible to put the current situation right only by the measures of catching regulation. There should be a complex approach. The way out is to organize the artificial reproduction of the whitefish with the further release of the fry into the bay. The article tells in details about the major part of this project — construction of the experimental whitefish-breeding facilities on the Kurshskaya Spit, describes the peculiarities of the technology.

Anisakis Problem of Baltic Herring and Ways of Solving It in the Kaliningrad Region
Galina Rodyuk, the Head of AtlantNIRO parasitology sector, Candidate of Biology

In spring 1996 the parasitologists of AtlantNIRO when tested chilled Baltic herring for the purpose of parasite safety discovered the living larvae of nematodes Anisakis simplex, which are dangerous for human health. Due to this the bodies of state sanitary inspection introduced a ban on sales of chilled Baltic herring and some products made of it.
The message about infection of Baltic herring by parasites being dangerous for a man took the fish enterprises unawares. There was no information about both methods and regimes of disinfection of Baltic herring products and quantitative parameters of fish infection.
For solving these issues the AtlantNIRO scientists were given several tasks such as to study the dynamics of Baltic herring infection in Russian fishing grounds, to carry out experiments on surviving of Anisakis simplex larvae in Baltic herring when fish is treated and processed in various ways and to present recommendations to the fish enterprises of the Kaliningrad region in respect of methods of disinfection of raw materials.
Parasites Anisakis on larvae stage are extremely wide spread in fish and squids of all oceans and seas. A man can get Anisakis only by eating fish production raw, salted weak and cold smoked.
During the last two decades Anisakis has become one of the major problems in the medical parasitology of many countries and mostly in Japan, USA, Canada, Europe. In Russia the cases of human infection were registered in the Far East and in Murmansk.
As through the evolution the Anisakis larvae were never connected with a human organism as a host and are alien to it then when they get inside the aggressive medium of human alimentary canal they begin to actively search for a way out getting deeply into the canal sides and damaging them. It results in a non-specific reaction of an allergic type. In most cases the larvae affect stomach and intestine. In recent years doctors in many countries register an increased number of people being infected by Anisakis.
It is known that the effective methods of fish production disinfection from Anisakis are hot thermal processing or freezing. For instance, the larvae die by the temperature +550C in a very short time. As for freezing, it is worth noting that the regimes suggested by various authors are not always suitable for the industry because major part of the experiments on survival of Anisakis were carried out in the lab conditions on the isolated helminthes. In the European Union there is a special directive 91/493 EEC which obliges businessmen to freeze raw material up to - 200C for not less than 24 hours before selling or processing. In the Kaliningrad region not all the fish enterprises have the freezing capacities with such parameters. On the basis of experiments of survival of the Anisakis larvae the AtlantNIRO scientists developed the Recommendations for fish enterprises of the Kaliningrad region (1997) which were included into SanPin 3.2.569-96 "Prophylaxis of the parasitary infections on the territory of the Russian Federation" (1997). In 1999 they worked out special "Instruction on disinfection and usage of marine raw material infected with larvae of nematodes of Anisakis family" which presently is under approval in the State Fishery Committee. The freezing parameters provided in this Instruction are linked with real technical capacities of many fish enterprises of the Kaliningrad region.

Problems and Prospects of Certification of Fish Products in Kaliningrad region
Vladimir Shenderyuk, the Chief of the Experimental Centre of AtlantNIRO, Candidate of Chemistry

The Kaliningrad region is the only subject of the Russian Federation which is entirely separated from the rest of the country's territory by the land borders of the foreign states and international sea waters. It is an enclave. Due to this the quality of fish products manufactured in the Kaliningrad region depends on the quality of the raw materials which are mainly imported or are those which remained from Russian fish unsold to the Western countries.
The Experimental Center (EC) of AtlantNIRO was established in 1993 on the basis of the laboratories for physico-chemical and microbiological experiments, sectors of radioecology and parasitology of fish for carrying out expert examination of the quality of production raw materials and food products with the purpose of certification of the said in the Kaliningrad region. The EC employees are co-authors of sanitary norms and safety regulations for fish products sold in Russia and also are developers of new methods for control over fish products. During the whole period of its existence the main criterion of evaluation of fish products quality has been their conformity with the safety requirements provided in "The Sanitary Regulations and Norms — 2.3.2.560-96" (so called SanPiN) of the State Sanitary Epidemiological Control of the Russian Ministry of Health. The priority is given to the evaluation of the content of toxic elements, pesticides, histamine and various microorganisms in the products.
Among the reasons for the rejection the author mentions the main one being the quality of the imported raw material - its incongruity with the normative documentation on mechanical damages, treatment style (rockfish, whiting), sizes, filling of fish's stomach with redfeed, fat content. There are cases of falsification, for instance, under the label of rock-cod they supplied smoothhead having less nutrition value. It is worth noting that all the above supplies were accompanied by the documents verifying their quality - by the certificates of SGS which is the inspecting organization of the EU. This big international inspecting company is present practically in every port. The Russian Gosstandard (State Standard) empowered it with control over the major part of products imported into Russia. So, the situation in Kaliningrad is that the goods produced, for example, in Poland to be exported to Russia are tested for the purpose of safety and certified in Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, etc. Foreign companies are entrusted with the evaluation of quality of imported products.
Today the control over the quality of raw materials and products manufactured in the Kaliningrad region which is lab production control is exercised only by the authorities of the sanitary epidemiological control and state veterinary control. Inspectors of these bodies mainly carry out control over safety of products in accordance with sanitary regulations and on the basis of conformity with veterinary requirements. Not having technological background and experience of work with oceanic products this inspectorate is not able to carry out control over conformity of imported and manufactured products with the requirements of GOST, OST, TU and, in some cases, safety requirements.
The author tells about the proposals to organize training of officers of the state veterinary control, sanitary epidemiological control and technologists of newly established fish processing enterprises on technological and other aspects of control over the quality of raw materials, production, storage and sales of fish products and sea food. Besides he suggests to create on the basis of scientific-experimental organizations of the Fishery Committee an independent inspectorate which could evaluate the quality of raw materials and fish products in disputable cases. At the same time it is necessary to raise a question in the Fishery Committee about equipping industrial scientific-research institutes with up-to-date analytical equipment. This issue is important also due to the fact that harmonization of methods of control over the quality of fish products at home and abroad requires the tests to be done on the equipment having at least the same class of accuracy. Development of the control methods identical to those existing in the EU countries has become a real necessity as today the test results in respect of some quality parameters are incongruous because are reached by means of different methods.

Teeth and Jaws (Extracts from the book of the same name to be edited by Maritime Industry).
Fjodor Litvinov, AtlantNIRO Chief Researcher, Candidate of Biology

When speaking about "cats" we recall, first of all, fluffy pets stretching themselves on sofas and then - tigers and lions. When saying "sharks" we recall Blue water - White Death, and rarely something else. Nevertheless sharks are animals like others, among them there are 'mice' no longer than one palm, "cats" purring the certain songs, sharkdogs, small semiparasitic "leeches" gnawing flesh of whales and big fishes, bloodthirsty striped "tigers", peaceful "cows" which are bigger than many whales. There are known near 800 species of sharks, skates and rays and ichthyologists hope to discover 200 new ones. Compare: there are 36 cat species, 600 dinosaurs, 2000 rodents, 9000 birds and more than 24000 fish species. It is surprising, but "dangerous" sharks reputation may be profitable for tourist business, as number of people like "risky fashion". I have seen notice "SHARKS!!! NO SWIMMING" in the places where no shark attacks have ever been recorded. Sharks keep their secrets and mysteries: some of them appeared long before dinosaurs and have lived with no modifications since then, other ones have a reproduction type being incomprehensible till now; third ones, which are able soon crawling than swimming, were found on submarine mountains in the middle of the Ocean. Sharks can bear babies like mammals and lay eggs like hens. Some sharks can bear fertilized eggs inside until hatching and then the hatched babies swallow eggs laid for them specially, differently packed for every age group. Some scientists believe that inside of mother body shark babies eat not only specially laid eggs but their own siblings as well.
The main mystery: very recently, several centuries ago, blue, whitetip and silky sharks impetuously conquered the Ocean pelagia, having pressed out former Ocean bosses: mako and their relatives - great white sharks. The conquerors were not newcomers, they have been known for almost 9 million years, but they have not played the leading role until recently - before the Great Ocean Revolution. Intrigues, plots and other palace affairs… It is very possible that in some three hundred years the mankind will be driven out by some intellectual rabbits (better than rats and cockroaches, however).
The book is based on the collection of sharks, skates and rays jaws, teeth, claspers and vertebrae, which have been collected by the author since 1976 in various parts of the World Ocean. At the moment the collection is exhibited onboard of scientific vessel the Vityaz which is the property of the Museum of the World Ocean.

A kind of conversation with you, my dear reader*
Is the author ready to swim in the places congested with sharks?
At the presence of rhapsodical girl-admirers willing to do everything for the sake of the hero, the author is ever ready to dive into the pool containing more than three hundred and a half different sharks (i.e. nearly all the living species) and the same number of skates and rays. No danger but light scratches, and the author is eager for the desirable reward. When several species (see below) will be added into the pool, I'll never dive, for you'll have nobody to be rewarded.
Is it true that gutted sharks take the hooks baited with their own guts?
This is just a theoretical attitude. In practice even one-meter long dwarf will not consent to be gutted. The cutter, for sure, will be deprived of a piece of flesh or whipped by the tail at least. To process and investigate the shark one has to poke a knife in the certain point of a shark body. You may see a photo and the process description in the book. Being poked in the mode the shark is only able for teeth chattering, but not for catching something or swimming.
Lev Tolstoy the Count wrote that the shark being shot from the cannon floats belly up. Is it true?
This is one of the numerous Count's delusions he has not been criticized for yet. Only shark's liver can float by itself. A shark can as well from time to time, however. Author's cruises companions have been observing the scrupulously investigated and gutted sharks, which being given back to the Ocean floated in line after the vessel - bellies up exactly - while the bellies proceeded to be inflated with the air, which cannot penetrate inside a shark body without help from outside.
Is it true that shark babies devour each other just inside the mother's body?
No, somebody has read a scientific report carelessly.
The problem is: some of sharks' mothers cannot feed their children directly via umbilical cord (as we, elephants and dogs do), but they don't want to risk laying eggs out and so keep them inside until embryos hatch and grow up till the certain size. The embryos in the period between hatching and spawning are fed on unfertilized eggs, specially packed for every size group. Shark pups become self-sufficient early - they begin swimming independently just inside mother's body searching for food. With no illumination there is possibility (by mistake) to swallow under-developed and so doomed sibling, but the event takes place rarely. There is no particular throat-cutting among kids. It would be a stupid idea: in order to increase kid's weight for one gram one has to spend at least several grams of yolk, so it is more profitable to feed kids with eggs but not with siblings. Moreover, kids' teeth are out of use inside mother's body — they are turned back and covered with a film.
Is it true that if sharks follow the ship somebody will die onboard?
This is the exact sacred truth. When a shark able to follow a moving ship appears, many amusing things may take place on the planet, for example, all the wishes will come true. In reality several dolphins and tuna species only may run in line with vessels. The usual shark speed is two or three, rarely up to seven kilometers per hour, even trawling ships move faster. Sharks in general, both predator and peaceful ones, do not react to vessels moving close and vessels sometimes just strike them. Mr. Kipling had a chance once and me several times as well.
Do new shark teeth grow instead of the broken ones?
That's true, in general. Exactly speaking not "instead of" and not "broken ones". New shark teeth substitute used ones as cartridges in the Kalashnikov. It is not important if the tooth is broken or intact, in certain time the tooth turns outside and falls down, the new one takes its place, being ready long before. The sharks cannot wait for new tooth growing, their life style presumes teeth to be cartridges in the battle, and the demand is permanent. The ocean floor is covered with substituted shark teeth as the battlefield - with cartridge-cases. No one animal on the Earth but small plankton and sharks leaves so much eternal traces.
What a nice idea to have new teeth permanently, with no care about caries!
Unfortunately, sharks are aware of teeth problems. The "ancient ocean aristocracy"- lamnoid sharks - nearly completely are infested with parasitic crustaceans which penetrate into jaws cartilage and damage teeth roots. Such a damaging may result in teeth crowns modifications and cause a lot of troubles among paleontologists dealing with fossil teeth only at the absence of their owners. New Lords of the Ocean - Blue shark and its courtiers - really have less teeth problems.
Why sharks have such large jaws?
You are to be proud of the best question. The problem is: the size of a mouth of some sharks relates to tuna and swordfish ones of the same body length as football and ping-pong balls, and the sizes of their main food items are nearly equal. The same time tuna and billfishes have no real teeth, but kind of light grater soon. It seems sharks do not need really to cut something with teeth constantly. However, the sharks cannot live without big jaws and sharp teeth. What matters is not just food, but love as well. This is not a simple question. So, read the book.
* I'm asked to answer such questions at lectures, scientific conferences and museums in Kaliningrad, Moscow, St. Petersburg, San-Diego, Rome, Madrid and other places by fishermen, servicemen, pretty girls and other nice persons. Should you have more questions send letters to the editorial office, I'll try to answer via the magazine or in the book.
Your Feodor

Let's speak a little on the Love… (Extracts from the book of the same name to be edited by Maritime Industry).
If you have no experience in Love of your own due to your age or philosophy, it is for sure that you are well educated on the problem from TV or Cinema. The theme is eternal, attractive, profitability is overwhelming. The cinema men are so eager to eat and to feed offsprings that they use all the brain cells (if any) searching for innovations. Routine ways are: love in the car, in the cave, on the tree, etc. Rare way (last centuries): in the bedroom. I have an idea of a bestseller erotic scenario. We (you and me only) will become rich as nobody before. So put all your money in the bag and run to me for the film budget cutting out.
The film draft name is "The Eight minutes and a half", no longer, as there is a danger to kill auditorium by laughter or weeping, and because physical abilities of heroes are limited as well. The idea is to tie the hero and heroine hands, knees and ankles back, and to put them into a deep pool with no permission to reach the banks. To avoid sinking some life-clothes may be used, this is a merely technical problem. This is the time for their passion! Sine qua non condition: the passion to be mutual, sincere and fiery. Recall your own early teenage fantasies and you may hope for happy end of the Story.
No comfort, however. And we know that blue sharks make love in this style with no other choice. And the reproduction is successful! The most part of fishes have abandoned idea of the close body contact, they practice external fertilization by putting eggs and sperm into water like many flowers — into wind air - and with no real pleasure as I may guess. But with no torments as well. At the same time all the sharks, skates, rays and chimeras consider embraces (and internal fertilization consequently) to be indispensable for real life and love. Making Love with no hands, with no legs and frequently with no bed or other support. Frankly speaking, I can be envious, but not in this case. Crafty chimeras boys are equipped with special frontal hooks to anchor females. Blue shark males cannot put playmates on the bottom, like whitetip reef shark Triaenodon obesus males do, or wind around a girl friend like slender small-spotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula does, as they make love in pelagia far from the bottom, being relatively larger and more robust comparing to catsharks.
Being tied as described above, how are you going to reach the desirable object (ripe and pretty strawberry for example)? Sure, you have nothing but mouth! And how are you going to keep the thing? Without any assistance, you have your own teeth and nothing else. Give it very tender bite and then…
Well, having no flexible extremities and conjugal bed, Blue shark males are forced to use their teeth to keep playmates. Nothing else. Moreover, they cannot stand still voluptuously, as motionless shark swims like a brick, so they have to wag at the time. Witnesses of blue shark love-affairs (if any) keep silence, but consequences of such games are well-known. After love-making Blue shark female looks like an old mop which has been run over by a bulldozer. Pectoral fins are torn to pieces like feathers, pelvic ones hardly exist, white skin fibers are exposed from torn wounds like old mattress stuffing. Nightmare? Not for sharks. Females consider such caresses to be the most tender kisses before parting for a long period. The teeth marks are like lipstick ones, being the passing reminder about romantic adventure, to disappear fast and with no traces. Sharks in general have a fortunate ability for wounds healing. Here is an example.
There is a possibility to meet one stupid among sailors. And exclusively stupid - from time to time. Stupid sailors have such an amusement: to cut upper lobe of caudal fin completely and release the crippled shark back to the ocean in order to provide it with sufferings before the death. I have seen a number of signs of such amusements. Surprisingly, but no scars or other traces of the cruel amputation were observed. Vivisected places were covered with smooth shining blue skin, as though upper lobe never existed.
Finally, after long maneuvers and bites the target is hit. The task becomes much simpler after that, the reason being a special device. Shark boys and girls may be easily recognized from outside, due to presence of so-called claspers in boys. Every boy is equipped with two claspers from the very beginning of the life. You see?! Clasper! To clasp the girl. The Latin name of clasper is pterigopodium, it may be translated as 'winged leg'. Being out of use claspers are directed backward, like sheathed sabres.
During love making, clasper may be driven into the target thanks to the special joint like in an elbow. Before penetration into the female body the clasper head looks like an early rose bud, formed by two petals, big one and smaller one. The petals protect the hole of sperm ejecting duct and sharp spur which turns outside and anchor female's body when clasper is put in and the bud is opened. It is clear from the photo of the open clasper skeleton, why it is called "winged leg". It is a real leg with wings! At last the female is clasped, anchored, the bud is opened. Impetuous stream of spermatozoids, joyful like schoolboys at the beginning of the holidays, run directly to… You are wrong, unfortunately. Spermatozoids in the female's body don't move immediately to ovicells. They go to special "shell" glands and fall asleep. Passionate embraces and kisses are in the past, melancholy disturbs the soul from time to time. Spermatozoids are kept in shell glands like love-knot photos in the old album. At the certain time, may be in several years, the lover's cell will awake from lethargy. And many interesting, fantastic and amusing events, with no analogy in the Animal World, will take place in the mother's body. But this is another Story.

First Russian Tourist Cruises to Arctic at the End of the 19th - Beginning of the 20th Centuries
Vladimir Vekhov, Candidate of biology, Deputy Head of Maritime Arctic Complex Expedition

The article tells about the origin of the Arctic tourist cruises which have their own history. Russia plays in it not the last role. It appears that Russians were among the first Arctic tourists and as far back as in the 90s of the XIX century Russia was the first country whose ships would carry people willing to enjoy wild beauty of the North to acquaint them with the life style of "the northern strangers" and to hunt wild animals.
The Arctic tourism in Russia emerged thanks to the activity of Association of Arkhangelsk-Murmansk Express Steamship Line that was founded in 1875 with participation of the state financial assistance. The headquarters of the steamship sat in S.- Petersburg and the head office was situated in Arkhangelsk. Every year the state allocated subsidies for organization of the cruises in this way promoting economic development of the northern parts of Russia and involving their resources into the economic turnover. Within the project several lines were set up. The ships of the company every week sailed to the White Sea and the Barents Sea along the Murmansk coast. Also ships would perform 2 cruises to Novaya Zemlya in July and August - September depending on weather conditions.
The tourists used these very lines for travelling to the Arctic. From 1880 till 1917 on the sea lines there worked 11 ships. They had steel hulls, one or two screws, two masts. Most of them had 2 decks and The Emperor Nikolai the 2nd had 3 decks, there were cabins of various classes. Among the steamships The Lomonosov was the best one, built and bought from England in 1891. It had two screws, steel hull with a double bottom and five watertight bulkheads, two engines and speed of 10.5 knots, electrical lighting. The Lomonosov could carry 500-600 passengers and 960 tons of cargo at a time, the number of crew was 23 people. Other vessels did not have such a capacity - they could take from 50 to 400 passengers.
Seeing the influx of tourists and travelers the Association in 1898 published a special reference brochure called "The Russian North Guidebook" at the own expense. For the purpose of a short stay of the travelers at the Mourman river the Association built a cosy inn near an ancient Pecheneg monastery. As from 1910 the company began to publish a unique reference-book "The Annual Coast-Dweller's Guide". Each issue of this book gave details of conditions under which cruises were organized, tariffs and prices of travelling to various places for each class, duration of travel and approximate time at stops.
The prices for steamship cruises were affordable. Due to this among the tourists there were people of a very wide well-being range, including a lot of foreigners. With the aim of popularization of the cruises the Association committed itself to take all the scientific expeditions on board free of charge. The scientific tourism was given such a priority due to the fact that the Association was headed by very educated people who cared for Russia's prosperity.
The article tells about a typical cruise giving descriptions of nature, of meetings with the locals, of various activities with which the tourists could busy themselves. Here is one of the brightest descriptions of the wild nature which the tourists could see on Novaya Zemlya: "Look around and you will see the endless space of a stony desert, wet and slippery with melting snow... and in a distance against the background of the pale-blue clean sky there is a rare chain of "the Northern Alps" covered with snow. They look a bit frightening and cold, very severe and cheerless but anyway irresistibly beautiful."

Spit and Hurricane
Felix Alekseev, Head Scientific-Technical Information Dept. of Kaliningrad Regional Ecology and Natural Resources Committee

The hurricane which fell upon the seacoast of the region last December caused huge damage to the municipal economy and region's nature. The coastal territories were especially badly hit and among them the Kurshskaya Spit was affected worst. Winds felled, broke and split not less than 50000 cbm of wood on the spit and the losses on the spit accounted for the third part of those of the whole region. Nevertheless even in view of the gravity of these wood losses this problem is not a major one. The key issue has been and still is destruction of the coasts. This destruction of the coastal land by storm waves has been taking place as much time as the Baltic Sea exists. During thousands of years our coasts recede for on average one meter per annum. This is a natural and inevitable process that we can not change on the whole. Its results are complicated and various and are both destructive and constructive. The classical example of the duality of the interaction between the sea and the land is the erosion-accumulation system of the Kaliningrad seacoast. Here the process of erosion of loose rocks of the coast and undersea slop of the Sambia peninsula during thousands of years would provide the sand stocks which accumulated in the bodies of the Vislinskaya Spit and the Kurshskaya Spit. The process of destruction, abrasion and erosion in the certain parts of the coast provided for the process of creation and accumulation in the other parts. These processes are characteristic for all the world seacoasts. The configuration of coasts is ever changing and will be changing in future.
In the places where such changes conflict with our interests the issue of necessity of the protection of the coast arises. As for the Kaliningrad coast, this problem exists not for one century and many generations of land users tried to solve it. Evidences of this are medieval boulder walls near the Balga fort, long chains of pile and groove along the northern Sambian coast and by the root of the Kurshskaya Spit and also a great number of big and minor walls, girds and breakwaters along our coasts. The experience of the century proves that various types of engineering coast protective devices are not efficient enough. Erected at huge costs they at the best would slow down the recession process of the coast to some extent but could not resolve the problem once and forever. It is understandable - we do not have material and financial means so that to change large-scale geological processes.
The problem of the coastal destruction in our region is usually considered in regard to relatively small parts of the coast in the resort towns and of the root part of the Kurshskaya Spit. In these very parts the natural coastal processes affect our economic interests: preservation of buildings and communications which were rashly erected too close to the cost parts being eroded, functioning of the highway Zelenogradsk - Klaipeda on the Kurshskaya Spit, etc.
A special attention in the last years has been paid to the possibility of a catastrophic erosion of the root part of the Kurshskaya Spit due to which this unique peninsula can turn into an island. It happened once several centuries ago when the citizens of Kranz (Zelenogradsk today) were mobilized to cover with bags filled by earth a wide breach through which Baltic waves rushed into the Kurshskaya lagoon. Last time such an event happened not so much time ago - in 1983. This article specially tells about the problem of preservation of the Kurshskaya Spit as a peninsula.

Translated by Galina Kopytova