13 September in St. Petersburg saw the start of the 2^nd Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo, Russia’s main fishing industry event, which brought together representatives from over 30 countries. Delegations from Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Morocco, China, Korea, Norway, Turley, Japan and other countries are participating in the Forum.

«Rational development of the resources of the World Ocean and provision for a sustainable industry are among the international community’s priorities, so the main topic of the Forum — „Global fishery 2050“ is extremely relevant. It is important to discuss all possible scenarios for development of the fishery industry in the long term and the Russian Federation’s part in this process», noted Russian Federation Deputy Minister of Agriculture and head of Rosrybolovstvo Ilya Shestakov.

The Forum’s programme opened with an international conference «Issues in commercial straddling stocks fishing activities». Russian and foreign experts discussed international co-operation in fishing under the conditions of climate change, industry forecasts of water bioresources by Russian fishermen in straddling spheres, sustaining bio-diversity and problems of sustainable fishing in the international legal sphere.

The participants in the conference included Full Minister, Advisor and representative of the Faroe Islands under the kingdom of Denmark in Moscow Bjorn Kunoy, DSc (Law) FGBNU VNIRO Damir Bekyashev, representative of the Nanaimo Institute (Canada) Dr Richard J. Beamish, representatives of FGBNU TINRO-Centre Dmitriy Antonenko, Prof. Suam Kim, DSc of Busan University, President of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) and other experts.

«It was a great pleasure for me to head the official opening sessions devoted to rational use of the oceans in consideration of the tasks of sustainable development up to 2050, in which heads of the main ministries and representatives of international organizations took part», Bjorn Kunoy remarked at the conference.

The business programme of the first day of the GFF continued with a conference «Shipbuilding 2050: A peek into the future». The participants discussed the future of shipbuilding, increasing the economic efficiency of fishing by using modern vessels, fishing gear, and practical use of other modern technologies, and the safety of global fishery. The conference included two roundtables: «Course for 2050: trajectory for improvement» and «Course for 2050: The safety of fishermen and fishing vessels», which were attended by member of the Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, member of the Committee of the Council of the Federation of the RF for Agriculture and Food Policy and Environmental Management Liudmila Talabaeva, Deputy Director, Federal Agency for Fishery Pyotr Savchuk and the General Director of the Leningrad Shipbuilding Enterprise Pella and other speakers.

The first day of the Forum saw the ceremony for awarding the certificate of the Marine Stewardship Council, MSC, for the pollock trawler industry in the Sea of Okhot to the Association of Pollock Fishers. General Director of the MSC Rupert House handed over the certificate to the Vice-President of NKO Association of Pollock Fishers Alexey Buglak.

On 13 September, an agreement on co-operation was signed between FGUP Centre of the Fishery Monitoring and Communications System and OOO GK Trading Technologies. Head of FGBU TsSMS Artem Vilkin and General Director of OOO GK Trading Technologies Vadim Klementiev signed a document on elaboration and development of a module for holding trades and sale of output produced on ships of the fishing fleet through the OSM portal. The system will allow all users of the OSM portal to organize and hold bidding for sale of fish and seafood and products made of them.

The Seafood Exhibition also opened on the first day of the Forum, presenting novelties and the latest development of the Russian and foreign fish industries, fish breeding and processing organizations, ship-building enterprises, manufacturers of equipment and auxiliary materials, relevant services of trading and other companies. The Exhibition includes a broad tasting programme and the first fish fast-food is presented.

The
business programme of the Global Fishery Forum continues on 14 September, the
second and main day of the event. Minister of Agriculture of the RF Dmitry
Patrushev, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and head of Rosrybolovstvo Ilya
Shestakov, St. Petersburg Deputy Governor Sergey Movchan, Deputy Prime Minister
and Minster for Fisheries of the Government of the Faroe Islands Hogny Hoidahl,
Minister of agriculture, sea fishing,
development of rural territories, internal water bodies and forestry of
the Kingdom of Morocco Aziz Ahannush, Minister of Fishing and the Marine
Economy of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania Nani Uld Shruga, Minister of
Fishing of the PRK Son Chyun Sop, Minister of Fishing, Aquaculture and the
Marine Economy of the Republic of Guinea
Frederique Lua will speak at the GFF-2018 opening ceremony. The
important guests will take part in the official walk-through at the exhibition
and the plenary session «Global fishing activities 2050: resources, markets,
technologies». On the sidelines of GFF 2018, an official ceremony will also be
held of laying the keel of a fishing-industry vessel at the North Wharf
ship-building works.