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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Fishermen troubled by escalating Russian war games |
| 2021-09-11 |
| Depends on what the D-10 turns out to be By Thomas Nilsen [BarentsObserver] With the large-scale joint Russian-Belarusian military exercise Zapad 2021 (West 2021) starting, several of the best fishing grounds in the Barents Sea will be closed from September 10, the Notice to Mariners issued by the Defence Ministry in Moscow reads. Based in Murmansk, The Port Administration for Northwestern Russia is also issuing coastal warnings (PRIPs) in addition to providing coordinates for dangerous navy shootings in open waters. The new warnings for the coming week follow an exceptionally busy August with weapons testing and navy shootings across the Barents Sea, from the Varanger fjord in the west to Novaya Zemlya in the east. “The problem is not only that vast waters are occupied for exercises, but that the notifications come at very short notice,” says Sturla Roald, juridical advisor with the Norwegian Fishing Vessel Owners Federation. “We experience that the exercises have increased both in scope and intensity in recent years, which means that Norwegian vessels more and more have to interrupt fishing and sail out of fish-rich areas,” he tells the Barents Observer. This week, warnings are issued for three large areas north of the Kola Peninsula. The largest closed-off zone goes all west to the maritime borderline with Norway’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) north of the Varanger fjord. The Barents Sea contains some of the largest fish resources in the world, including the cod stock. Norway and Russia share the marine resources and quotas for the different species are negotiated annually by the two countries’ joint Fisheries Commission. The arrangement allows for Norwegian vessels to fish in Russian waters and vice versa. Cod, haddock, capelin, halibut and crab catches from the Barents Sea are worth billions and thousands of people are employed on the vessels and in the land-based seafood processing industry. The 2021 cod quota was set at 885,600 tons, up 20 percent from the year before. Increased tensions The fisheries, however, are now severely challenged by escalating military tensions between Russia and the West, at levels not seen since the last Cold War. The old saying “high north - low tensions” seems to be a quote from the past. For Russia’s military leaders, the Barents- and White Seas are not only important exercise areas for the fast-growing numbers of new warships and submarines. The vast waters are also home to testing of new naval weapons systems. Especially those weapons that can fly long, like the new generation of sea-launched cruise missiles, the hypersonic Tsirkon and the Kalibr. The European part of Russia’s Arctic waters offers both space and long uninhabited coastlines. More secret weapons tests include the nuclear-powered underwater drone Poseidon and the nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile. As previously reported by the Barents Observer this autumn, the closure of large areas near Novaya Zemlya was believed to be connected to Burevestnik testing. Read the rest at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |