Japanese fishing boat captured by Russian authorities

KUSHIRO, Japan (PNA/Kyodo) – A Japanese salmon and trout fishing boat from Hokkaido was seized by Russian authorities Friday for breaching the fishing quota, the Hokkaido government said Saturday. Masato Ito, the captain of the 29-ton boat Hokomaru, and 10 crew members are uninjured, it added. The Japanese Foreign Ministry asked the Russian Embassy in Japan to return the vessel and release the crew members at an early date. According to a local fisheries cooperative in the town of Hiroo in Hokkaido, the drift-net fishing boat left a fishing port in Nemuro, eastern Hokkaido, on July 6 for Russia’s exclusive economic zone.