The Russian-English publication Tikhookeansky Vestnick (Northern Pacific) Magazine, the only voice of commercial fishermen and fishing dependent communities in the Russian Far East, is appealing worldwide for sponsors and subscribers to its publication and to help support its ongoing efforts to rid their fisheries of rampant government corruption and mismanagement, and to combat the 'sweetheart deals' quota system manipulated by what they call the 'Fish Mafia' that largely still controls the Russian fisheries quota allocation system. The magazine's repeated exposures since its beginning in January 2000 of cozy government-factory trawler allocation deals that have cut local Russian fishermen off from access to their own fisheries in favor of giant foreign-owned factory trawlers have earned it a worldwide reputation as a protector of fishing dependent communities in Kamchatka and throughout the Russian Far East.

Fishermen in the Russian Far East are currently fighting against the selling off of Russia's continental shelf oil and gas reserves within vitally important fisheries areas that, if those developments proceed, are likely to wipe out a major seafood source for the region (see Sublegals, 4:10/10). The magazine is on line in both English and Russian at: http://npacific.kamchatka.ru. Donations to their work can be made to the Charitable Public Fund of Bioresources Conservation of the Northern Pacific (fund "Northern Pacific"). Since sending funds to Russia is particularly difficult, before doing so you should contact Sergei Vakhryn, Editor, for instructions by way of email at:s.vakhrin@npacific.kamchatka.ru.