MURMANSK. Jan 16 (Interfax) - Russia's detained Oleg Naydyonov trawler still remains in Senegal, despite the fact that the vessel owner is ready to post bail, director of the Murmansk company Phoenix Yury Parshev told Interfax.
"Nothing has changed, [the boat] is in the port of Dakar and we are waiting for decisions," Parshev said.
The Senegalese authorities have not yet informed the ship owner of the timeline and conditions for the release of the trawler, Parshev said. Meanwhile, the owner has already prepared all the documents necessary for posting bail for the vessel.
As of now, two crew members of the Oleg Naydyonov trawler have left Senegal and returned to Russia and two other sailors have been sent, Parshev said.
The Oleg Naydyonov trawler was detained by Senegalese servicemen on January 3 in the Atlantic Ocean, 46 miles off the shore of Guinea-Bissau. The crew of the ship is comprised of 62 Russian citizens and 23 natives of Guinea-Bissau. Their detention was carried out without an explanation of the reasons behind it and the vessel was escorted to the military port of Dakar.
The Senegalese authorities claim that the Russian boat was fishing illegally in the economic zone of Senegal, while according to the Oleg Naydyonov's captain, the trawler was in the zone of Guinea-Bissau. Russia is preparing to file a lawsuit with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.
Russia's fisheries agency Rosrybolovstvo said that it felt that the incident was related to the growing competition for biological resources on the western coast of Africa.