Moscow, January 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is to keep in place its ban on Norwegian refrigerated fish while the threat of poor-quality products entering the market remains, the head of a veterinary watchdog said Monday.
Ivan Rozhdestvensky of the head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight, said: "The ban applies to only one product - refrigerated fish. The ban does not apply to frozen fish."
"The storage time of refrigerated fish is not sufficient for reliable checks and tests to be carried out, so this product is not being allowed onto the Russian market," he said.
The ban was put in place in December, after traces of heavy metals were found in Norwegian fish.
Norway has acknowledged the ineffectiveness of its quality control programs, and is taking action to improve its systems, Rozhdestvensky said.
A fish caught in the Norwegian zone of the Barents Sea by Russian fisherman recently was found to contain a high level of mercury, he said, adding that the cause of the contamination was likely to be fish's habitat, or its food.
"This is a matter of separate investigation," he said.
Tensions arose between the two countries towards the end of 2005 over fishing in the Spitsbergen region.
Two Russian fishing boats, the Kapitan Gorbachev and the Dmitry Pokramovich, were detained by the Norwegian Coast Guard on October 24 2005 and released October 28 after posting bail. The Norwegian Coast Guard had detained the trawlers near Medvezhy Island in the Barents Sea after the boats entered a 12-mile exclusive fishing zone without permission on October 24.
Norwegian authorities accused the ships' crews of unauthorized fish reloading in Norway's territorial waters. The arrests came in the wake of a drama in mid-October 2005 involving the trawler Elektron, which the Norwegians pursued across the Barents Sea for five days after accusing the Russian crew of violating Norwegian fishing regulations.
