We continue to receive reports of extensive illegal fishing in Russian Waters.  In fact 75% of all seafood caught in Far East Russia is exported illegally according to Russia’s Interior Minister.  He cited corrupt officials and other legal problems as reasons for the worsening situation.  Police reports indicate 3,000 poachers have been held criminally responsible for 5,600 crimes.  The Russian poachers are also doing a great deal of harm to the local Russian fisheries so they have a self interest in curbing this activity.  We at BBDA think our new RSDA could help investigate these types of problems too.  If the RSDA could curb interception of our sockeye by 1% of the run size, the increased revenue in the form of increased returning run size would balance against the 1% assessment.  The cost of the
BBRSDA to the fishermen would be close to zero dollars per year and the RSDA would still have the funds to do lots of
marketing and infrastructure work.

Area M:
Last summer the ADF&G staffs in Area M and Area T were given funding to do DNA stock ID research on the sockeye in the North Peninsula and Bristol Bay.  Instead of doing research that could be used to estimate Ugashik, Kvichak and other interception levels the area manager chose to do a study around Nelson Lagoon in July. The burning question in the North Peninsula has always been “How large is the Area M interception rate of sockeye from the various rivers in Bristol Bay?”  Instead the money was used at a local level in a way that failed to answer any useful question.  The Bristol Bay Managers used their funding to answer relevant intercept questions.