Russia will develop a temporary procedure for research on Black Sea fish

Rospotrebnadzor, Rosrybolovstvo and the All-Russian Association of Fishery Enterprises, Entrepreneurs and Exporters (VARPE) are working on a temporary procedure for hygienic inspection of catches caught in the Azov-Black Sea region and products made from them. German Zverev, president of WARPE, told Izvestia on January 22.

"The primary task is to obtain accurate information about the state of aquatic bioresources extracted in the Azov-Black Sea basin. This will allow to exclude the risks of harm to public health due to the possible entry of contaminated fish products into the consumer market after the emergency in the Kerch Strait and to preserve the opportunity for fishing, so WARPE organized daily interaction with Rospotrebnadzor and Rosrybolovstvo," - said the head of the all-Russian association of fishermen.

According to Zverev, in order not to collapse consumer sentiment and prevent a collapse in the fishing industry in the Crimea and Azov region, it is necessary to avoid two extremes - "malicious cliches, speculation on the emergency, the creation of unfair rumors" and "rabid greed and desire to sell products contrary to the control system that is established and which is a guarantee of access to the market safe products".

The tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 crashed in the Kerch Strait on December 15 due to bad weather. 27 people were evacuated from both vessels, one person died. As a result of the incident there was a spill of oil products. Two criminal cases were opened over the incident.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on January 13 that a government commission to eliminate the consequences of the oil spill had been established by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On January 16, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, said that the fish caught in the Black Sea was not contaminated with oil products.