Eventually, spotted was the bitterest enemy of the domestic fisheries, named whale, or nicknamed gorbach (humpback), serii (gray), morskaya svinya (sea-hog), polosatik (striped-back), belukha (white-belly), butilkonos (bottle-nose). It keeps breeding, you know! The ichthyologists of all state departments concerned are ringing the alarm bell: "Evident whale overpopulation is observed in the White, Barents, Bering and Black seas, which leads to a decrease of fish resources within those basins".

However, it seems we are not the first victims. Two weeks ago, Iceland, though small but one of the largest seafood producing countries, declared: "We have had enough! In spite of all taboos imposed by International Whaling Commission (IWC) we are going to land 200, and not less, whales this year "to meet the needs of the industry". Earlier yet, Norway single-handedly allocated a quota of 400 whales doomed to be slaughtered within the next few months.

The Japanese are wide awake either. Last week they met with Russian representative at the IWC, Chairman of Russian Federation State Committee on Ecology ("Goskomecologia"), Vladimir Iliashenko. The purpose of the negotiations is to get support from Russia in the effort to tone down the control over the harvesting of various whale species.

So, generally speaking, whales beware! It's time to put you in check with the use of harpoons, special saws and cutting axes. Not in such a barbaric fashion as before, but rational, delicate, scientifically approved.

However, a scholar of some authority, Alexey Yablokov, heading Interdepartmental Commission on Ecology of Russian Security Council, is reported to state that there had been no facts confirming the alleged increase in the Belukha whale population in the northern seas. Besides, the Belukha whale does not feed on cod and therefore cannot upset its abundance. If some of whale species really did increase in number, that should be Polosatik whale inhibiting the Antarctic. But there locates the international reserve where even scientific research whaling is prohibited.

Today, 15 years since the declaration of the International Moratorium on any commercial catching of sea mammals (the ex- Soviet Union joined the Moratorium in 1987), populations of the largest and valuable Greenland Whales is short of 2,000, while gray whales, according to domestic and international estimations, are slightly over 12,000.

What drives the statesmen and interdepartmental science who ever more intensively push the idea of resumed whaling? Everyone knows that this country has neither technical means nor qualified personnel to accomplish this.