MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Up to 20 percent of vessels which take sea products from Russian territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone violate the law, a spokesman for the Federal Border Guard Service (FBGS) told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
The main violators are Russian vessels which account for 97 percent of ships brought to justice. In most cases the fishermen conceal the volume of obtained fish, export of sea products illegally, poach, violate the border guard regime and disobey to legal demands of the FBGS naval guards.
Disobedience often goes along with open resistance. Border guards were involved in 20 shootouts with poachers last year and people were wounded in two cases. A border guard died and four others were wounded in combat clashes with poachers in 1999.
Naval guards fined 1,337 Russian and 54 foreign vessels for a total of USD1m and confiscated some 1,500t of illegally obtained sea products from January to September 2001, the spokesman said. They brought suits for USD3.23m against those responsible for damages caused by illegal taking of naval biological resources.
This year's e results are considerably higher than those of 2000. The number of fined vessels grew by 250 and the volume of fines grew 3.8 times.