Cambodian-flagged ships held up by coast guards in Russian waters in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Sakhalin Island

via Khmer NZ

Today at 09:27 | Interfax-Ukraine A rough total of 75 tonnes of live snow crabs were found aboard two Cambodian-flagged ships held up by coast guards in Russian waters in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Sakhalin Island on suspicion of poaching, the Sakhalin coast guard branch said.

There were 13 tonnes of crabs on board one of the ships, the Eliant, which was detained east of Sakhalin and had a 15-member crew, 14 of the sailors being Russian and one Ukrainian, a branch spokesman told Interfax-AVN.

The other vessel, the Seven, with an all-Russian crew of 17, had about 62 tonnes of crabs on board. It was detained east of Sakhalin's Cape Aniva.

"The captains of both ships were unable to show documents to prove the legality of the crabs being on board the vessels. An investigation is under way," the spokesman said.

Phnom Penh is the home port of both ships, which were detained on Thursday and taken to Sakhalin's Korsakov port.