Due to a sharp decrease in fish catch in Ukraine, the cost of seafood has increased. The head of the Association of Fishermen of Ukraine, Alexander Chistyakov, spoke about this. “In 2015, Ukraine caught in inland waters, and also raised 88500 tons of aquatic living resources, of which 74,000 were fish. In 2016, almost 36,000 tons of fish were caught in the Sea of Azov. Of these, 2000 tons are Hamsa, 12.5 tons sprat and 21,000 tons of gobies. And only 140 tons of other fish species were caught, such as pike perch, kalkan, pelingas, herring, mullet, puzanok, that is, a very small catch, because the Sea of Azov is a world pearl and the world, which is 6.5 times more productive than the Caspian. Now we mainly catch only small fish ", - said Il Alexander Chistyakov.
The expert commented that the fishing in the Sea of Azov decreased due to a number of reasons. "Fish catch in the Sea of Azov decreased for several reasons. The first one is ecological, because chemical fertilizers from the fields get into the rivers that flow into the Sea of Azov. Plus, the metallurgical firms that are present on the coast of the Sea of Azov pour their own industrial waste.The second reason is a savage poaching attitude to fish resources ", - said Alexander Chistyakov. Back in 1991, Ukraine ranked among the five largest fishing states in the world." We caught 1 million 100 thousand tons of fish in Ukraine and in the world ocean. We had 386 ocean fishing vessels. At the moment, we have one ship left that catches krill in the Antarctic. Another 9 ocean-going ships have survived in the Crimea. Our consumer market over the past 10 years provides 660 - 700 000 tons. In recent years, it has decreased to 400-450 thousand tons. This led to jumps of monetary units. Since the acquisition of some species of fish has become out of reach for the average Ukrainian. Importers tried to deliver low-priced products, but this did not save the domestic market, which has fallen quite a bit in recent years, ”explained Alexander Chistyakov. He also said that now there are 8.9 kg of fish per year for a Ukrainian. less than 19.6 kg. "There was no such malnutrition in the agrarian country yet," Alexander Chistyakov stated. 
