According to Head of the Murmansk Oblast regional FSB directorate, the motor boats transport unregistered fish from larger fishing boats out in sea to military towns where custom and veterinary control is absent. The small boats have no equipment for satellite monitoring, and are therefore hard to track.
Today two motorboats were detained by FSB nearby Safonovo in the Bay of Kola, Murmansk Oblast, web site B-port.com reports. The boats were transporting 4 tons of illegal caught fish. Allegedly, among the six arrested smugglers there were employees in the State Small Boat Inspection, subordinate to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The Norwegian Coast Guard suspected that this kind of fraud was taking place, but has little control over the situation in Russian economic zone. Until 2009, Norway and Russia cooperated on exchanging data from satellite tracking of fishery vessels in the Barents Sea. This project is now over, something that complicates the work for the Norwegian Coast Guard, NRK.no reports.
