Last week, Western Sahara Resource Watch published the news of 2 Russian vessels that have been fishing in Western Sahara. They are both owned, managed and operated by Murmansk Trawl Fleet (MTF), sailing under Russian flag, and registered in the port of Murmansk.

MTF is one of Russia's biggest fishing companies, with more than 86 fishing vessels, most of them fishing in the North Atlantic. The company is controlled by the Russian government.

On January 13th we wrote about Aleksandr Mironenko. She is a socalled factory stern trawler built in 1988. She is 120 meters long, and last reported sailing from Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the Canary Islands on January 19th 2008. The vessel had also docked in the same port on September 23rd 2007 and on May 22nd 2007.

On January 19th we covered the activities of Kapitan Bogomolov, a 1991 built factory stern trawler, also 120 meters long. She is last reported sailing from Las Palmas Rada Sur Anchorage, Canary Islands, but was also seen there on December 28th 2007, on November 19th, as well as on Santa Cruz de Tenerife on June 8th 2007.

Address: 01, ul Shmidta 43, 183788 Murmansk, Russia.
Telephone: +7 8152 458114
Fax: +7 8152 459317
Email: mtf@mtf.ru
Website: www.mtf.ru