Border guards seize poaching vessels in Russia's Far East
Russian Far East border guards have detained two Cambodian-registered vessels with Russian crews illegally carrying several tons of crab and fish, the local border guard service said on Thursday according to RIA Novosti.
The two boats were carrying over 65 metric tons of freshly caught crab and over nine tons of frozen fish.
According to cargo documents provided by the captains, the crabs and fish were loaded onto the vessels in the exclusive economic zone of Japan. However, they entered Russia's economic zone without notifying the border service.
The vessels will be escorted to a Russian port for further examinations, a border guard spokesman said.
Russia banned exports of live crab in May 2007, but large volumes are still smuggled out of the country, primarily to Japan and South Korea.