Russians seek more fish

The lower house of Russia’s parliament wants a Soviet-era border agreement with the U.S. to be re-examined, saying that it gives the Americans too much of the rich fishing areas in the northern Bering Sea.

The State Duma voted 327-0 for a non-binding resolution, saying the U.S.-Soviet agreement dividing the sea between Russia and Alaska is unbalanced and violates national interests.

The statement said Russian fishing industries have lost about three million tonnes of fish worth more than US$1.4 billion.

The Russian parliament never ratified the deal, but the U.S. considers it legal and detains Russian vessels that venture to fish in what the agreement says are U.S. waters.

The Duma urged the government to determine its position about the agreement “in line with Russia’s national interests.” It also called for drafting legal proposals that would “minimize the damage to Russia inflicted by the agreement.”

Whaler dies after whale flips boat

Yupik whalers watched in horror last week as a harpooned whale surfaced beneath the canoe of a Little Diomede man who was hunting gray whales near the International Date Line in the Bering Sea.

Ronald Ozenna died from injuries he sustained when a harpooned whale flipped the small boat he was in and scattered hunters in the water.

“It happened so fast, I don’t remember blinking,” Orville Ahkinga Jr., a lifelong friend of Ozenna’s who was hunting in a nearby boat told the Anchorage Daily News.

Diomede residents have long hunted the gray whale, but they don’t like to, Ahkinga said. The animals are smaller than bowheads, and are good eating, he said, but very aggressive.

They call them “devilfish.”

After the accident, the hunters abandoned the whale as they hurried to bring the injured whaler to shore.