SEAFOODNEWS.COM [JAPAN REPORTS] — August 26, 2014 — Russian boats are engaging in illegal fishing activities, shifting the fishing grounds into the Japanese EEZ as regulation by the Russian authorities have been tightened within its own domestic waters.
The Hokkaido Fisheries Adjustment Office of the Fisheries Agency said it has collected during this summer 291 crab baskets that appeared have been set by Russian fishing boats in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off Monbetsu, northeastern Hokkaido, as well as 2,482.9 kilograms of snow crab (corresponding to 6,439 crab) caught in those baskets.
The number of baskets collected show a sharp increase of 5.5-fold from a year ago, with the volume of poached crab swelling 4.8-fold.
The office suspected that the Russian boats are engaging in illegal fishing activities, shifting the fishing grounds into the Japanese EEZ as regulation by the Russian authorities have been tightened within its own domestic waters.
The Fisheries Agency's four enforcement vessels conducted this year’s basket collection activities twice in July 7-22 and July 26-August 4 in the area near the Russian border.
The vessels sank special equipment to the sea bottom centering on Kitami Yamato bank–which is a rich snow crab fishing ground—to retrieve illegally-set crab baskets and ropes.
This area is a fishing ground for four bottom trawlers belonging to the Monbetsu Fisheries Cooperative and two gillnet fishing boats belonging to the Abashiri Fisheries Cooperative. No crab basket fishery has been authorized.
In 2012, when the Fisheries Agency began the retrieval project, 86 baskets and 105.4 kg of snow crab (about 200 crab) and 40 kg of neptune whelk, among others, were collected.
The number in 2013 was 53 baskets with 516.2 kg of snow crab (about 1,200 crab).
In this summer, the area off Sarufutsu Village in Soya, a horsehair crab ground, was added to the project, where 156 crab baskets with 116.4 kg of horsehair crab (355 crab) and 11 kg of king crab (10 crab) were collected.
All the crab were released to the sea after being collected.
The office explained that findings of increased illegally-set fishing implements this summer is due to the stepped-up unlawful fishing activities by Russian vessels.
Regarding this development, the Monbetsu Coast Guard observed that Russian fishing vessels are apparently trying to shift fishing grounds for illegal catch into Japanese EEZ in an apparent bid to circumvent the reinforced surveillance by the Russian boarder police.
The imports of crab from Russia to Hokkaido have been dwindling from the peak of 64,400 tons in 2005, with those in 2013 falling to 25,200 tons, less than half of the peak year.
It is pointed out that the plausible cause of the decline is fortified regulations by the Russian authorities.
Being nervous about the continued outflow of crab resources, Russia concluded in 2011 with Japan an agreement on the prevention of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing that required submission of certificates of origin in trade in an apparent move to hold in check the poaching and smuggling of crab.
The agreement is expected to take effect within this year, after both countries completed necessary procedures.
In addition, informed sources say, Moscow has been strengthening surveillance on poaching boats since last fall.
This apparently prompted illegal Russian fishing vessels that had been expelled from the Russian waters to be sneak into the Japanese EEZ.
In April last year, the Monbetsu Coast Guard seized a Cambodian-registered cargo vessel (207 tons) with 15 Russians onboard for allegedly engaging in crab basket fishery with no license, and ordered payment of collaterals, which means monetary penalty.
A fishery gear maker in Busan, Korea, which makes crab baskets for Russians, says it had manufactured 100,000 units around 2006-2009 but now produces only 30,000 units.
The 57-year-old president of the firm explains that the slumping business is due to the shrinkage in demand for crab baskets as only authorized vessels can engage in crab fishing and the number of poaching boats decreased substantially.
Looking at the photos of crab baskets collected off Monbetsu last summer, he affirmed that they were Korean-made products exported to Russia.
It is highly likely that poached crab using these fishing gears are being shipped to Hokkaido as Russian products.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.