PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, March 14 (AVN) - Kamchatka border guards on Tuesday convoyed the SRTM Sakhfrakht-3 trawler to the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a source in the North-eastern border guard department told the Military News Agency.
The trawler, hailing from Nevelsk, was detained by the Kamchatka regional inspection for the protection of sea biological resources while it was on illegal crabbing in the Sea of Okhotsk. The inspection found more than a ton of illegally hauled live crab aboard.
The trawler is the property of Sakhalin Frakht JSC and is already the fourth crabber detained for poaching this year. The living crab is the best-selling issue at Japanese ports, and gain-driven poachers would not be stopped even by the serious fines imposed and the confiscation of hauling equipment, the source stressed.
The law-enforcement bodies have initiated rough counter-poacher measures. The earlier detained Arko crabber was forfeit to the state per curiam, Grigory Kotovsky crabber is in for the same lot. The regional environmental prosecutor's office has received the materials on yet another Sakhalin poacher, the Rybak crabber, the source added.