On December 13, Russian customs officers detained four Japanese fishing vessels near the South Kuril Islands, off Russia's Pacific Coast, for poaching. Inspections revealed that out of the 11 boats only seven had permission to trawl in Russian waters. It was later discovered that one of the detained captains suffered from diabetes.
On Wednesday, Russia decided to release the captain as his health had deteriorated, subsequently handing him over to the Japanese Coast Guard on Thursday.
Confrontations over poaching between Russian authorities and Japanese fishing vessels are frequent in Russia's Pacific waters. Last August, a Japanese fisherman was shot dead near the Kuril Islands when Russian border guards opened fire at his boat after it refused to stop.
The incident further strained relations between Russia and Japan, which have contested the ownership of the Kuril Islands for over 60 years, a dispute that has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty after World War II.
Russia's State Fisheries Committee recently announced that Russia would launch a crackdown on illegal exports of crab and other bio-resources to Pacific Rim countries from the beginning of 2008.
In 2006, a total of 80 fishing vessels made illegal catches in Russia worth over 900 million rubles ($36 million). In the last two years a total of 7 million tons of illegally-caught seafood, worth 230 million rubles ($9.2 million), has been seized in Russia's Bering and Okhotsk Seas.
