Fishing banned despite low levels of toxic slick in Russia's Amur

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2005

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFP) — Russians will be denied fishing in the Amur river in the Far East for half a year though levels of toxic elements flowing from China are low, officials said.

"The region's inhabitants are once again reminded that fishing in the Amur is prohibited," the Khabarovsk region's government said in a statement.

In case the ban is extended until summer, the government was prepared to supply fish for the indigenous peoples depending on fishing for their way of life, the statement said, adding that the fish would be then imported from the nearby Chumikan area, northern Okhotsk and the Sakhalin island.

"The pollution levels now registered are safe for humans but dangerous for fish," WWF's Amur program coordinator Nikolai Yefimov explained,...