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Interfax
MOSCOW - For the second straight year, Russia will not give Japan a crab quota in the South Kuril Islands in 1999, a top federal fishing official said Nov. 30. Vladimir Izmailov, head of the State Committee for Fisheries, said diplomats and fishing officials of the two countries determined quotas for the Japanese fishermen in the South Kurils Nov. 28. The quotas were preserved "on the current year levels," Izmailov said. This year, Japanese fishermen caught 2.5 metric tons of pollack and greenling and 160 metric tons of octopus in the waters off the islands, which Russian holds but Japan declares are its own land. Russia seized the southern Kurils in 1945. The amount of "financial assistance by the Japanese side," which is effectively what Japan calls the payment for the resources, will also remain the same. As for fishing crab, the king crab in particular, Russia has to say no to Japan's repeated requests, officials said. This is because, according to the federal law on continental shelf, Russia can't give other countries quotas for valuable fishes and other sea products, Izmailov said. Meanwhile, Russia is offering Japan to set up joint ventures to catch other valuable species of crab dwelling in the lower depths. The talks took place as part of the Russian-Japanese accord on cooperation in the field of marine life that was signed in February 1997.
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