Dmitry Novikov, a lawmaker in Russia's Far Eastern Primorsky Krai, has fulfilled a five-year dream by catching a giant tuna measuring 2.28 metres.
Novikov, a deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai, announced the trophy catch on his Telegram channel and proposed turning the large predatory fish into a signature tourism brand for the Pacific region.
Writing on his Novikov Stalker channel, the politician said his party landed the 2-metre-28-centimetre specimen the previous day. He described the fish as truly enormous, noting that it belongs to the mackerel family of marine predators.
Novikov noted that public demand for trophy fishing is already massive, but pointed out that Primorsky Krai currently lacks the necessary maritime infrastructure to develop and promote angling as a viable travel sector.
Maritime infrastructure proposals
To resolve the deficit, Novikov proposed building several municipal boat moorings across the territory. He emphasized that these stations must operate with clear, acceptable pricing structures and provide reliable quality of service for visiting boaters.
He also called on authorities to solve the problem of refueling boats directly on the water, establish transparent operating rules to attract foreign tourists, and develop outside markets to sell trophy catches beyond the borders of Primorye.
Novikov urged officials to picture a traveler returning home and telling friends that they had visited Vladivostok and caught a tuna measuring more than two metres in length. That kind of impression, he argued, is an experience powerful enough to justify traveling across the entire country. He pointed out that the tuna arrived in local waters on their own, leaving regional leaders with the immediate task of managing the opportunity properly so the fish can become part of the broader economy of Primorye.
Pacific waters and national records
Primorsky Krai lies in the far southeastern corner of Russia along the Sea of Japan, bordering China and North Korea, with its administrative center in the port city of Vladivostok. The regional parliament, the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai, oversees a territory situated thousands of miles east of Moscow at the Pacific terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Tuna are large, powerful pelagic predators belonging to the family Scombridae, which also encompasses mackerels and bonitos. While typically associated with warmer oceans, Pacific bluefin tuna regularly migrate into the northern waters of the Sea of Japan during late summer and autumn, occasionally bringing massive specimens close to the Russian mainland.
Novikov's catch follows an earlier milestone in the same coastal waters. Danila Rasokhin, head of the sea fishing section at the Fishing Sports Federation of Primorsky Krai, previously set an official Russian record after catching a bluefin tuna weighing 232 kilograms and measuring 217 centimetres.
