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# 2, 1997

RUSSIAN POACHING… BY JAPANESE SCREEN-PLAY

By Vladimir Gorshechnikov,
President, Sakhalin Fishermen Association
International mass media provide a wide channel to an international public outcry to the effect that our Russian fishermen are near about to undermine the crab resources in the North Pacific, and what is more, according to the liberally cited Japanese sources, poaching in Russian waters is said to have reached a massive scale. Some of the authors of those articles even received special awards, which must be seen as nothing less than a sheer exhibit of public recognition of their correctness. However, we fishermen stood and keep standing perplexed, if put mildly, by the most of those articles. But we abstained from polemics as we reasoned that an average reader or viewer, unlike some of the journalists, is good at the elementary math, and therefore will be able to figure it out easily for himself. Though, the right time seems to have come for a serious and exhaustive explanation.
The fact is the poaching does really exist. It takes just a superfluous look into the documents of Kamchatka Fisheries Council sittings to see for yourself that every now and again some local fisheries get stripped of their fishing quotas for disclosed violations. I would like to stress here: fishermen are not quite disposed toward poachers amongst themselves as the latter undermine the resources all of us work, live and grow upon. Since very recently, we even started stripping the poachers of their fishing licenses just as well, so that they had no chance of continuing their black business away from this island, somewhere near Chukotka or Okhotsk. Under these tough enforcement, the violators are left no alternative but to sell their boats and say "god-bye" to the high seas for keeps... But we are not the only ones fighting the sea scoundrels. Customs, Coast Guard, Russian IRS and other authorities are actively involved in the massive crackdown. The baited hooks they cast ever so often are able to extract the poachers hiding out of the main stream of fisheries. Here again, the situation may be nothing short of funny. For instance, Sakhalinrybvod (Sakhalin Fish & Game) was said to have taken leadership among all other fish resource protecting agencies in the Russian Far East, its personnel was said to have uncovered nearly a half of all fishing violations in this region. This is fair enough as Sakhalinrybvod inspectors operate in the most congested fishing grounds and quite recently they took possession of a small fleet of high speed boats. But a certain group of leaders harbor misgivings about the Sakhalinrybvods's record. They say: "Hey, look the poachers fly into rage again in the islands!" Meanwhile, crab species are much less exploited over here than, say, in Kamchatka, and correspondingly, the loopholes for infringements and violations are much narrower.
Now, about the exorbitant profits our fishermen allegedly reap harvesting crab. The most efficient crabbing boat in the whole fishing area for a season brings about 8960 dollars in profits! It so happens that the fishing crew of the whole boat earns their fishing company just about the amount hardly topping 746 dollars a month.
Anyway, we can calculate not only the predicted profits per boat, but also the total sales value of the Sakhalin fishermen's catches in the Japanese market. Thus, in 1996 about 7384 metric tons of various crab species were harvested by this region. At average Japanese market prices the sales proceeds amounted to 5,126,450,000 Japanese yens, or slightly over 42,000,000 dollars. Even if you imagine that the yet-at-large poachers smuggled 9 to 10 times as much of the crab value, the total still will not exceed 420,000,000 dollars. But was this money really "stuffed into the pockets" by fishermen? The rumors that there are dollar multimillionaires amongst fishermen in Sakhalin are nothing but idle talk. It is sad, really that somebody uses these rumors to build a career of a so called "defender of people's interests".
By the by, about the defenders. The time has come to clarify what interest and of what people they state to be defending in reality. In the local press and, since very recently, the official documents of the local government, have flashed some figures on our crab exports to Japan. Most frequently, we hear references to NHK broadcasting company of Japan reporting that throughout 1996 some 56,738 metric tons of Russian crab were handled through Japanese ports, while our sources report only 7,316 metric tons. Based on this plain comparison first Japanese, than our compatriot defenders of natural resources, tend to draw certain conclusions like the neighboring country imports eight times as much of our crab as officially declared harvested in Russia. Therefrom they proceed to a further conclusion that the fishermen are all thieves or poachers.
I beg your pardon, but the overall Russian Far East (RFE) crab quota, for example, amounted only 54,400 metric tons. Even if we take the rather doubtful Japanese data as a basis and consider that Japan is well-nigh the only destination for the Russian crab we would figure that we imported into Japan nearly the same quantities as we harvested. I can permit that 3,000 to 4,000 metric tons may have been sneaked across the border, but to agree with the allegations of the entire RFE catch being smuggled into Japan would mean to believe our Customs, Coast Guard and other relevant authorities were outright deaf and blind, or did not function throughout the year at all.
As much dubious is the Japanese figure for official crab deliveries, inasmuch as nearly the same quantity is supplied annually by Sakhalin crabbing companies only. But then, if we satiated the market with our crab, the question is what were the neighboring Primorskiy Krai, Magadan or Kamchatka doing at that time? If they were poaching and smuggling the product across the border then their corresponding regional Customs, Coast Guard and other enforcement bodies were in a state of complete paralysis as well. But the documents, fines, court hearings and seizures of boats owned by the caught poachers testify to the opposite. So do the local press publications.
We discussed it on many occasions with our colleague fishermen as to where the Japanese information sources got the above figures from. We decided that the data of the unaccounted-for deliveries of crab might really be higher indeed, but due to the poaching practices of the Japanese fishermen themselves, who still have no reservations about illegal scale fishing around the South Kurils.
However the main reason for the purposeful and continuous inflation of the crab issue lies somewhere else. Take note: the publications in the Japanese press started coming out with dazzling regularity in 1996. It was up until January 1, 1996, that the Japanese boats had had free access to our crab fishing grounds, of course following the intergovernmental treaties and based on the allocated quotas. The whole fleets existed at Khanasaki, Nemuro, Kusiro and other ports because of these crabbing opportunities. However, upon adoption of the Russian Law on Continental Shelf the Japanese fishermen no longer availed of the said opportunities. They were faced with serious problems, compelled either to sell out boats or re-outfit them for different species other than crab. In the meantime the government was urged to provide financial support for companies on the brink of bankruptcy. Then, as if by a magic wand, as rain showered articles and reports on Russian poaching, all authored by previously silent scientists and experts of all sorts. Such publications became regular in the Japanese press.
One more uneasy fact: most Japanese publications dwelling on Russian crab imports and Russian crab poaching focus on the South Kurils. The already mentioned NHA aired that there was a threat of total extermination of the entire crab population in the so called "Kurils Triangle". Still, we can find some logic with the Japanese, because, at any rate some of them think of the northern territories as their primordial lands, and wish they could get them back complete with the untapped natural resources. As far as our defender compatriots are concerned, you can get an impression as if they do not really care of what happens in the South Kurils. In the meantime, the research fishing was carried out by Japanese, quite naturally in compliance with corresponding agreements with Russia. Nobody ever made noise about the resource depletion or undermining. As soon as our scientists lay their hands on research fishing, in Japan sounded numerous outcries warning of the complete extermination of the most valuable resource. Although anyone caring enough so as to look deeper into this problem, would obtain absolutely correct information in this respect from the Sakhalin Science and Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (SakhNIRO). Thus, according to the scientists, the 1996 volume of research fishing (the only way to assess the crab population in certain area) in the Kurils amounted to a mere 32% of the allowed quota, near the Sakhalin West Coast 66%, East Coast 63%. So, doing research fishing, and this is what our scientists and fishermen are criticized for by people who do not have a hang of fishing and research, we hardly ever were capable of landing the allowed quota. Why then somebody has to trumpet about the threat of the complete extinction of the crab population?

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