SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — October 1, 2014 –Russian authorities detained the vessel in the high seas waters of the Barents Sea, and towed the vessel to Murmansk.
The new developments in the case of the F/V Juros Vilkas are that the EU has officially protested to Russia over the seizure of the vessel on the high seas, and a trial date has been set in Moscow for an October 7th hearing about the seizure and the claim the vessel was illegally fishing snow crab in the Russian zone.
Russian authorities detained the vessel in the high seas waters of the Barents Sea, and towed the vessel to Murmansk. The Russians claim 15 tons of snow crab was on board.
The vessel representatives in Lithuania admit that the vessel did stray over the Russian line for a very short time, perhaps an hour, but that no fishing was conducted on the Russian side. The vessel is part of a fleet put together by Yuri Silagin, owner of Arctic Fishing in Seattle to fish for snow crab in the "donut hole" part of the Barents Sea.
"We are concerned by the forced apprehension of the Lithuanian fishing vessel," an EU spokesman said. Lithuania, a Baltic coast state, is an EU member that was long under Moscow's control until the Soviet Union's break-up in 1991.
"The European Union calls on Russia to respect its international obligations and to immediately release the vessel," he said, adding that the EU had raised the issue with the Russian Ambassador to the bloc, Vladimir Chizhov.
The Minister of Agriculture of Lithuania Virginia Baltraytene asked the European Commission to represent the interests of Lithuania in the case of detention Juros Vilkas, and Commissioner Maria Damanaki said: "I am very disturbed by the fact that the Russian Border Service forcibly detained Lithuanian ship. We work closely with the Lithuanian authorities to make every effort to ensure that the ship would be released as soon as possible. "
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.