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The Russian Far Eastern Research and Fishing Council at a recent meeting in Vladivostok recommended a complete halt of authorized crab catching in the country’s Far East, thus exposing illegal crabs appearing in neighboring Asian fish markets.

The suggestion, made at the Council’s meeting on February 14, aims to finally put a stop to massive crab poaching in Far Eastern waters.

Along with the crab halt plan, the participants of the meeting proposed about 90 revisions to the fishing regulations in the Russian Far East, with the majority being approved.

Among the suggestions were projects to revise the standard and legal basis for distributing fishing quotas. The participants also worked out the list of sea products for which quotas are mandatory.

The Council’s development department will summarize these suggestions by March 20, 2008 before finally submitting them for consideration to the federal government.

The next meeting in April in Kamchatka will be devoted to this year’s salmon fishing season, with the Russian Government preparing by July 1 a number of regulations concerning salmon catching.

In 2007, the fish catches in the Far Eastern waters totaled 2.15 million metric tons, showing a 6-percent increase compared to 2006. The Russian Far East’s share is 84 percent of the country’s aggregate amount of fish caught.