It defines these levels as the "scientifically justified annual catch of aquatic biological resources of particular species in a fishing area".

The law does not explain this further, but calls for the federal government to issue a special TAC setting statute.

The Law on Fisheries also gives a definition of a fishing unit area and sets general principles for their use.

It may be expected that in the coming years at least two new federal laws, "On Coastal Fisheries" and "On Aquaculture", will be considered by Russian legislators.

[3] Ships built, purchased, or serviced outside of the Eurasian Economic Union face significant restrictions in landing catches caught in Russia's EEZ, and from 2022 will not be allocated any fishing quotas in Russian waters.

Indigenous fishers mainly work estuaries, lagoons and rivers (for anadromous fish).

Poaching by private individuals feeds the industrial IUU catch, and forms a vicious cycle.

[9] Fishing has similarly influenced the life style of many indigenous groups, such as among settlers around the Pacific Coast, north of Siberia, and around the big lakes.

In the late 1960s, administrative decisions were made to abandon many coastal villages and resettle people in larger settlements.

The fishery sector has been stable in absolute terms in recent years, so its share of GDP has reduced as the general economy has expanded.

[3] Due to the decreasing catch and a growing export to East Asian markets, Russian fisheries cannot meet current domestic demand for seafood.

Russia has more than 2 million rivers, the largest of which are, in order, Severnaya Dvina, Pechora, Dnieper, Volga, Ob', Don, Yenisei, Lena, Kolyma, Indigirka and Amur.

Russian illegal exporters have well oiled links to importers in Japan, China and South Korea.

[5] Aquaculture is based mainly on buffalo, grass and silver carp, rainbow trout, scallops, mussels and laminaria.

[16] Aquaculture can be freshwater or marine (mariculture): Potential development areas for freshwater aquaculture include 960,000 hectares of agricultural water bodies, 143,000 hectares of ponds, plus other areas in big lakes and water reservoirs suitable for cage farming.

The federal government is considering a subsidy of two-thirds of the credit needed to construct and modernise aquaculture facilities.

[3] The fishing industry suffered from the collapse of Soviet Union: the harvest dropped dramatically and only started to recover in the mid-1990s.

The reasons for the decline in annual harvest included the decrease in stock due to aggressive Soviet fishing practices, changes in the use of the open sea fishing areas, low effectiveness, and problems in the value chain on the local market, including lack of regulations and unaffordable lending.

[19] The absence of trade protectionism measures additionally incentivized Russian fishing companies to deliver fish directly to foreign buyers both in the Northwest and the Far East, providing no benefit to the Russian government in terms of taxes or currency.

The domestic supply decreased, pushing up prices making Russia a lucrative market for foreign fish companies.

According to the document, the domestic fish catch in Russia should account for no less than 80% of the total seafood consumption.

The program goals included renewing the fishing fleet and land-based processing industry by introducing the fishery quota.

Basically, the government allocated 20% of the total allowable catch for the companies willing to invest in new vessels to be built on domestic shipyards.

[18] By 2019, Norebo (Russian: Норебо), owned by Vitaly Orlov, was the largest fishing holding in Russia.

[20] Despite being one of the key global exporters of fish (specifically, pollock, cod, and herring), Russia has a notable import dependency on salmon.

The reasons include the underdeveloped aquaculture, light export regulations, and distorted production and consumption geography: 85% of salmon is harvested in the Far East but consumed elsewhere, and selling fish domestically means dealing with expensive and unpredictable logistics.