Russia: State-commercial brake on the development of marine aquaculture

The State Environmental Expertise of Rosprirodnadzor in October of this year made a decision preventing the Crimean enterprise NIO Marikultura from growing Mediterranean mussels and Pacific oysters in the sea area of Sevastopol. Since Western countries are refusing to consume Russian seafood, the grown products had to be supplied to the Russian consumer. It should be noted that out of 11 members of the state expert commission, 8 are representatives of commercial structures. In a brief excursion into the natural conditions of the project for growing mussels and oysters in sea water, the expert commission, for some reason, focused on soil contamination in the Republic of Crimea with heavy metals and pesticides, a 4-fold increase in the number of cars, traffic jams as air pollutants . Further, the expert commission of Rosprirodnadzor cites “weighty” comments that served as the reason for the negative conclusion of the state environmental assessment (SEE) on the cultivation of bivalve ...