vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #543 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Kamchatka’s prosecutors on Wednesday launched a criminal case against a skipper of a Japanese fishing boat charging him with illegal fishing in Russian territorial waters with an estimated damage of 8.5 million rubles.

Matsuo Takagiwa, captain of the Tomi Maru No. 53 from Kushiro in Hokkaido, became a criminal suspect after four Japanese vessels including his were taken to the Russian Far East for inspections off the Kamchatka Peninsula last week.

The captain had permission to catch herring and pollock but had exceeded the quota. Russian fish inspectors found more than 20 tons of undocumented pollock, 19.5 tons of flat fish and other fish forbidden for catching in the hold of the Tomi Maru No. 53, Kamhatka’s border guards reported.

The illegal catch has been seized and the damage is estimated at no less then 8.5 million rubles ($318,300), prosecutors said. The skipper is awaiting trial, his boat might be confiscated.