« November 2007 Table of Contents 
One Man's Opinion: Russia’s poaching party could be over
By Peter Redmayne
November 01, 2007
Doing business in Russia's Far East is not for the meek. A
few years ago, the governor of Magadan, one of Russia's eastern
provinces rich in fisheries resources, was shot dead on a
Moscow street as he chatted on his cell phone. Governor
Tsvetkov, nicknamed "The Bulldozer," was reportedly whacked
over a business deal gone sour.
Rampant corruption in Russia's seafood sector is not
breaking news. After the collapse of communism, fish quotas
were put up for bid. The winners bid outrageously high prices
in order to get out on the water. Then, once they were on the
water, they could pay off the appropriate authorities and catch
a lot more fish than their quota allowed for.
Some of the worst cases of illegal fishing have been in the
fisheries off Russia's Pacific Coast. According to The Krai, an
online magazine based in Russia's Far East, the 2005 king crab
quota in Russia's Pacific waters was just 500 metric tons,
while actual landings were 25,000 metric tons. In the case of
snow crab, the magazine said, the quota that year was 15,000
metric tons, however, 39,000 metric tons were exported to
Japan. With so much blatant overfishing, it's surprising that
Russian poachers can still make a living off crab.
What's been good for the poachers has been good for their
customers, too. A slew of processors on Hokkaido, Japan's
second-largest island, have built their business on a steady
diet of deliveries of illegal live Russian crab. American
buyers have gobbled up Russian crab, too. A glut of medium-size
king crab from Russia's Far East last year drove the holiday
wholesale price down to $5.50 per pound and retailers happily
jumped on the opportunity to promote the bargain.
Alas, there are signs that Russia's poaching party may
finally be coming to an end. This September, Moscow police
arrested Arkady Gontmakher, owner of Global Fishing, a Seattle
company that is thought to be the largest single U.S. importer
of Russian king crab (see Newsline, p. 12). According to
Russian authorities, Gontmakher allegedly exported about 15,000
metric tons of illegal king crab worth an estimated $200
million.
Russia's Border Guard has also been cracking down in an
operation dubbed "Crab 2007." The combination of the arrests in
Moscow and the newly invigorated enforcement efforts at sea
have dried up landings of Russian king crab as poachers have
been afraid to leave the dock.
It's also clear that Moscow wants to regain control of the
natural resources that it previously had ceded to the
provinces. This summer President Putin reasserted federal power
over fisheries by bringing back the Soviet-era State Fisheries
Committee and giving it responsibility for fisheries
management.
While Russia has long talked about stopping the plundering
of its fisheries, this time the crackdown appears serious. In
the short term, that's bad news for companies that have been
making money off of illegally caught Russian fish and
shellfish. Over the long term, however, it's good news. Russia
has vast fisheries resources that, if well managed, can produce
prodigious quantities of seafood on a sustainable basis. And
that would be good news for everyone.
Contributing Editor Peter Redmayne lives in Seattle