Far east border guards detain foreign vessel for poaching

Border guards in Russia’s Far East detained on Friday a foreign fishing vessel that carried some 16 metric tons of poached live sea urchins, Natalia Yershova, a spokeswoman for local border guards, said. She said border guards detected Winner-2 vessel, flying the flag of Cambodia, in the exclusive Russian economic zone to the south-east of the Shikotan Island and asked the ship to stop for an inspection. The vessel tried to escape, Yershova said, and the border guards had to fire warning shots before the Winner-2 stopped. The inspection revealed 330 boxes on board of the detained vessel with some 16 tons of live sea urchins inside of them. The captain of the ship failed to provide any permission documents. The illegal catch of the sea urchins, which was worth 11 million rubles ($375,000), was released back into the water, while the detained ship and its crew were escorted to the port of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, she added.