Economics

15:37, 11.12.2007 | APR

Russia's new fishing policy aimed at fighting illegal crab catches in Russian waters could seriously damage the economy of Wakkanai, a city on the north Japanese island of Hokkaido, local authorities said.

The announcement by Russia to enforce a five-year ban from January 2008 on commercial crab fishing near Kamchatka, in Russia's Far East, sparked concerns by authorities of the Japanese city.

"This will hit the city's economy," a spokesman for the Wakkanai administration said. The majority of Wakkanai, a city with a population of 40,000, is employed in the fishing industry, which includes trading Russia's Kamchatka crab.

Japan is the world's largest crab eating country, while the crab population in the Japan Sea has significantly decreased.

Alexander Savelyev, a spokesman for the Russian State Fisheries Committee, said a ban on crab catches is needed as "illegal crab catches could threaten the Kamchatka crab with extinction." So far, crab numbers in the region have fallen by 40% in two years.

The officially permitted crab catch in Russia is 55,000 metric tons, but the amount caught amounts to some 155,000 tons a year, Savelyev said, adding that the majority of the crab caught ends up in Japan.