We’ve all heard the horror stories about the decreasing numbers of wild Atlantic Salmon, but this short film tells the story of awesome healthy Atlantic Salmon, sweet accommodations from the Ryabaga Camp on the Ponoi River and some good old Russian politics amongst it all.
On January 11, 2012, Ilya Sherbovich, owner of Ponoi River Company and trustee of the Russian Salmon Fund, participated in a summit between 10 leading representatives of the Russian angling community and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The meeting was also attended by Andrey Krainy, who chairs the Russian Federal Fishing Agency. Russia is about to introduce a new fishing law that will regulate access to public and private fishing waters across the country. In 2011, an international body of Atlantic salmon conservation groups joined the Russian Salmon Fund in calling upon the Russian government to uphold regulated access to salmon rivers, in hopes of preserving fragile salmon stocks. These conservation efforts have been opposed by several groups of Russian anglers that continue to lobby for “free access” to all lakes and rivers. Both Andrey Krainy and Ilya Sherbovich raised the access issue at the meeting with Prime Minister Putin, reiterating the urgent need to protect Russian Atlantic salmon and other rear fish species. It is with great satisfaction that we can report Prime Minister Putin’s affirmation of measures to uphold the existing sport-fishing regulations for the Kola Peninsula, Kamchatka, and Khabarovsk regions. We hope that our joint efforts to support responsible amendments to Russian fishing legislation will yield a successful result in 2012.