(seafood.com) Japan, Russia to sign a bilateral agreement to prevent crab poaching in the Russian waters in September.
The Japanese and the Russian governments will conclude a bilateral agreement on the prevention of crab poaching in the Russian waters in the Sea of Okhotsk, including the areas around the four disputed northern islands for which Japan claims its territorial rights, it was learned on August 25. The pact is aimed at holding in check the declining trend of crab stocks by overexploitation.
The agreement, due to be formally signed at the Japan-Russia summit meeting scheduled for next month in Vladivostok next month, purports that Moscow will issue certificates on fishing areas and quantities in exporting crab to Japan, while the Japanese government will authorize traders to import the crab after confirming the legitimacy of the crab at its customs office in a bid to prevent distribution of poached crab in the Japanese market.
The two governments are now working on finalizing the agreement including prevention of falsification of the certificates, using for reference the case of the imports of tuna – a species for which there is concern about possible depletion.
According to the Japanese competent offices, including the Foreign Ministry and the Fisheries Agency, the Russian government establishes the catch quota for crab in the Russian Far East area from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the area around Sakhalin--about 46,000 tons 2012--and permits the catch by the duly authorized fishing vessels. In spite of this regulation, however, illegal catch of crab has not been halted.
In 2011, Japan imported 32,731 tons of king crab and snow crab from Russia, but in reality there has been no way to identify whether or not the crab was caught illegally.
A Hokkaido seafood trader points out that the crab actually imported to Japan could amount to about twice or three times larger than legitimate volumes.
Russian crab account for about 40% of overall crab distributed in Japan, and market participants believe that the new agreement might most likely affect the supply and prices of crab in Japan.
At their Foreign Ministers' meeting later in July, the two countries agreed on improving the environment over the bilateral talks on the territorial issue by accumulating cooperation in the areas of national security and economy. Informed sources note that the crab agreement came fully in line with this move.