PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, December 3 (RIA Novosti) - Nearly 400 tons of crab worth $36 million which was seized from poachers will have to be destroyed in Russia's Far East, a law enforcement source said on Wednesday.

On August 1, 2007, amendments to Russian fishery laws, designed to prevent corruption and confiscated catches being sold on the black market, came into force. Under the law, all seafood and crab that have been caught by poachers must be destroyed.

"The total value of the confiscated seafood and crab products stored in Kamchatka company warehouses is one billion rubles [$36 million]," the source said.

On Wednesday dock workers began unloading the Aurus, a trawler flying a Panamanian flag, recently caught poaching in the Sea of Okhotsk. A total of 97 tons of crab legs worth some 100 million rubles ($3.6 million) were seized by border service officials.

Once a court rules that items have been obtained illegally, they should be destroyed by either being buried at landfill sites of shredded and dumped at sea.

"Millions of rubles are spent on the disposal of poached items, which could easily be sold on domestic or foreign markets," the source said.