Yuzno.com

Several governments attending the International Whaling Commission meeting say oil and gas development poses a grave threat to Western gray whales.
Addressing the opening day of the 63rd annual IWC meeting, representatives raised concerns over expanding oil and gas operations off Russia’s Sakhalin Island, a key feeding ground for the critically endangered whales and […]

Sakhalin Energy has given in to four years of environmental campaigning and announced the withdrawal of its request for government backing for its controversial oil and gas project in the Russian Far East.
The Sakhalin II project, a multi-billion dollar undertaking to construct oil and gas platforms and an 800km pipeline across the island of […]

Environmentalists are again sounding alarm over the future of the unique population of the Western Pacific gray whales.
This time, Exxon Neftegaz Limited (ENL), a participant in oil projects on Sakhalin, is laying a pipeline via the Piltun Bay, a key feeding area for the gray whales.
Any negative impact on this area during […]

Public hearings on the issue "Confirmation of general admissible catch of Pacific salmon for 2008" were held in the Area Administration. Officials and representatives of fishing community listened to the report of the representative of SakhNIRO on the forecast of approach of salmon this year, the department of information policy of the Sakhalin Area Administration […]

Quotas for crab catches have been slashed by 20 percent for the year 2008 and the catches are allowed for scientific purposes only, a spokesman for Goskomrybolovstvo, or Russian Fishing Committee, Alexander Savelyev said Wednesday.
According to Goskomrybolovstvo’s fishing quotas, allowable quotas for crab stand at 51,761 metric tons, a 20-percent decrease compared to 61, […]

Russia’s environmental regulator said on Wednesday it is fining the operator of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the Far East more than 390 million rubles ($15.8 million) for deforestation.
Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, said Sakhalin Energy had the option of paying the damages voluntarily. Otherwise, “the damages will be obtained […]