RUSSIAN FEDERATION — June 24, 2014 — The Russian government estimates that illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) crab fishing in Russian waters represents USD 700 million every year.
According to Russian authorities, king crab legally harvested in Alaska mostly goes to Asia, where it fetches a higher price, while cheaper king crab from Russia gets imported to the United States to fulfill the domestic demand.
An unknown number of ships poaching crab is part of the bigger, global industry of pirate fishing, which the conservation group Oceana estimates takes at least USD 10 billion of seafood a year from the world’s waters in violation of various national and international laws.
“This is a global problem that subjects our fishermen to unfair competition with illegally caught fish products entering the marketplace here and abroad. Illegal fishing also depletes fish stocks, which ultimately hurts the legal fishermen, fishing nations and their economies,” pointed out Eric Schwaab, assistant administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Service.
British research organization, Chatham House, reports that such IUU activity may then show a high chance of success from the failure of governments to adequately regulate, or to enforce national or international laws. A particular driver behind IUU fishing is the failure of a number of flag states to exercise any effective regulation over ships on their registers – which in turn creates an incentive for ships to register under these 'flags of convenience'.