Kawabata Takashi, the captain of the Zuisho Maru 38, admitted illegally fishing in Russian waters and was released on April 20 after an order to pay a fine of $13,800.
A delegation of Japanese government officials traveled to the Kuril Islands to meet the trawler captain, Valentin Smorchkov of the Kuril-Japan center said. "An agreement to hand Takashi over was reached the day before. The Japanese captain spent 114 days on Shikotan [part of the Kuril archipelago]."
The Zuisho Maru 38 was seized on January 21 off Kunashir Island, one of the four Kuril Islands involved in a Russian-Japanese sovereignty dispute, carrying over 1.8 metric tons of fish, including cod, Alaska pollack and flounder. The crew did not have a permit to fish inside the three-mile territorial zone of Russia.
The Russian Coast Guard has stepped up patrols in the disputed territory as Japanese fishing boats have been frequently intruding in waters around the Kurils.
