The Russian Fishery Company purchased the Turnif JSC in 2013.¹ In 2020, Turnif filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate a decision made by the Pollock Catchers Association earlier that year to expel the Russian Fishery Company from its association because they believed that its proposals aimed at reforming the fishing fleet caused their businesses economic harm.² An arbitration court temporarily ruled that the company could not be expelled until the court reached a final decision.³ In December, the court reached a decision to invalidate the exclusion, which meant that the Russian Fishery Company retained the right to use the association’s group Marine Stewardship Council certification, which allowed it to supply buyers in Europe.⁴

“They cheated all the ship crew out of at least 50 percent of their earnings,” said a 2021 review posted to Yandex Maps by a user who said he had worked on a Russian Fishery Company vessel earlier that year.⁵ “You’ll be busting your ass doing two jobs,” wrote a 2gis user who said the engine room on another vessel owned by the company was understaffed.⁶ In March 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the businessman Gleb Frank, who founded the Russian Fishery Company. Frank was the sixth richest man in the world at the time, according to Seafood Source, and he sold more than 90 percent of his shares in the Russian Fishery Company so that the sanctions would not affect the firm.⁷ “It is useless to go to the court or to the prosecutor’s office,” said an April 2022 comment posted to 2gis by a former worker on a Russian Fishery Company ship.⁸ The user said the company refused to pay out bonuses that were promised to workers.⁹ “Take action before someone dies from your torture,” said an August 2022 comment posted to the business directory, Vl.ru, by a former worker on a ship owned by the company. The reviewer said that the crew were sometimes shut into the fish processing room without fans when the temperature exceeded 80 degrees Fahrenheit.¹⁰ “People got pennies for the summer,” said a September 2022 review posted to 2gis by a former crew member on a Russian Fishery Company vessel. “The equipment on the ships is so worn out that it feels like the ship could go down at any moment,” said another comment on 2gis in 2023 from a user who said he worked on a fishing vessel owned by the company.¹¹

On May 5, 2023, residents of the Nadezhdinsky District, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, complained about “murky, dark green liquid” and stinking fish odor from the Russky Pollock fish processing plant owned by the Russian Fishery Company.¹² The dirty sewage water dumped in rivers drove away ducks and other wildlife. Factory officials said they thoroughly cleaned waste water before it entered the city sewage system.¹³ In 2024, an employee on one fishing vessel owned by this company was stacking boxes of fish in a freezer hold when his leg became trapped between conveyor belts, according to an investigation by the Primoriye state labor inspector.¹⁴

Online commenters who said they previously worked on fishing vessels owned by the company described poor working conditions. “The work is brutal,” and the company often recruited Russian and Indonesian migrants because locals refused to work for them, said another review by a fisher posted in 2025. The review cited working conditions on the ships as “comparable to forced labor.”¹⁵ Another review posted that year said that crew members on the Russian Fishery Company vessel where he worked were required to work six-hour shifts with no bathroom or smoke breaks.¹⁶

Captain Vdovichenko (Factory ship): In 2020, the food processing equipment supplier Carsoe installed a fish processing factory onboard Russian Fishery Company’s supertrawler Captain Vdovichenko that would double the vessel’s production capacity, according to Intrafish.¹⁷ The onboard processing facility had the capacity to produce about 15,000 metric tons of fillets, minced meat and surimi, as well as 8,000 metric tons of other products such as pollock roe and milt. All of the production waste would also be processed, contributing 6,000 metric tons of fishmeal and fish oil production. Another comment posted that same year said that the managers on the ship refused to provide crew members with bottled water.¹⁸ On the morning of December 21, 2022, a crew member on the Captain Vdovichenko went missing in Aniva Bay.¹⁹ He was rescued by the Zolotoy Rog vessel.²⁰ “We were cheated out of our wages,” said a November 10, 2024 online review by a former worker on the vessel. Another review from a former employee, posted on February 6, 2025, cited “public humiliation of seafarers, harsh working conditions during long voyages and non-payment under the contract.”²¹

Pioneer Nikolaeva (Factory ship):

Pavel Batov (Factory ship): “There are cockroaches everywhere on the ship,” as well as black mold, wrote someone who said he worked on the Pavel Batov, in a comment posted to Vladivostok.flamp.ru, an online review board, on September 14, 2022.²²

Martynov (Factory ship): “They feed you like livestock,” said a 2024 review by a former worker on the Martynov posted to 2gis. “They constantly screw people out of money.”²³

Mekhanik Maslak (Factory ship): On February 28, 2023, a fire broke out on the Mekhanik Maslak, causing at least $3 million in damage.²⁴ It took three hours to extinguish the fire.²⁵ On October 8, 2024, Eastern Arctic fishing officials fined the owners of the ship for illegally catching more than $95,000 worth of pollock.²⁶ The captain, production supervisor, shift foremen, and technologist on this ship “openly demean sailors’ honor and dignity, with or without cause, resorting to personal attacks and obscene insults,” according to a 2025 review posted to Vkontakte by a former worker.²⁷

Russian Fishery Company did not respond to a request for comment.²⁸