ROSATOM International Fishing Tournament was held for the first time with participants from India and Bangladesh. Athletes from 10 nations, including Russia, participated in the competition, which took place on September 7-8 in the Gulf of Finland and followed the PRO ANGLERS LEAGUE format, a European championship for spinning fish from boats.
The occasion took place next to the Leningrad NPP, one of the first facilities in the world to receive the state-of-the-art Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactors supplied by Rosatom globally and the largest operating nuclear power station in Russia in terms of installed capacity.
President of the Rusatom International Network Vadim Titov noted: “Although the event is held on such a wide international scale for the second time, Rosatom has been organizing fishing competitions in near-station water bodies for more than 10 years. We attach great importance to such events because for us it is an opportunity to demonstrate that nuclear energy is a clean source of energy and that nuclear technology and nature complement each other. And we are happy that our guests from nine countries were able to see for themselves that clean fish lives in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear power plant, which has been operating for almost half a century.”
The tournament’s geographic scope has substantially increased. The competition featured 26 amateur athletes in total. They are representatives of Russia as well as Armenia, Hungary, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, South Africa, and Turkey, countries where Rosatom is now building or wants to build nuclear power plants.
Fishermen from India, Egypt, Russia, and Uzbekistan visited a nuclear power plant in Finland to take part in the annual Rosatom international fishing tournament. More than 200 fish were caught with a total weight of more than 7 kilos. The fish was weighed and weighed again before being released back into the sea.
This year, fishermen from India Arunabha Sannigrahi and Santosh Jaiswar came first in two nominations: Biggest Single Catch and 1st place in total catch.
The Tournament aims to strengthen international cooperation between the countries, as well as to clearly demonstrate the safety of the proximity of nuclear power plants for the flora and fauna of nearby water bodies.
Derek D’Souza, Vice President of the All India International Game Fishing Association (AIGFA) and an avid fisherman himself, said: “I really enjoyed participating in such an interesting event. The fact that it’s held in front of a nuclear power station with teams from many other countries makes it more challenging and allowed us to see that nuclear energy is safe.”
