News Summary March 22, 2017
Today's Main Story: Sakhalin Officials Arrested for Allowing IUU Russian Crab to Flow to China
Headlining the news today is a focus on how the Russian Sakhalin Island continues to be a battlefield between local officials and the Russian crab mafia, which is trying to restore its positions that have been significantly affected by the recently tightened fight with crab poaching in Russia. Alexander Khoroshavin, the former governor of the Sakhalin Island was arrested and the investigation of his case continues. Additionally, Alexander Taratenko, head of Rosrybolovstvo of Sakhalin, together with Mikhail Kuzmenko, the Minister of Agriculture of Sakhalin (and a person, who oversees the development of regional fish industry, and in particular its crab segment) were arrested on the suspicions of power abuse.
In other news, catches of Alaska halibut are starting to pick up after wild weather got the fishery off to a slow start after the March 11 opener. Less than half a million pounds have been landed through Tuesday by 82 deliveries, with Sitka leading all ports, followed by Seward and Kodiak. Just seven boats had delivered about 36-thousand pounds of halibut at Kodiak through Tuesday; 52-thousand pounds crossed the docks at Seward from eight landings, and nearly 65-thousand pounds at Sitka from 15 boats. Landings at other Alaska ports weren’t available because they were too few yet to record. The prized fish are getting big prices, up 30 cents a pound compared to the start of the season last year.
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