MURMANSK, October 25 (RIA Novosti) - The captain of the Dmitri Pokramovich, one of two Russian fishing boats detained by the Norwegian Coast Guard for alleged fishing violations, was ordered by the ship's owner not to sign any documents, leaving the situation up in the air, a spokesman for the ship's owner said.
Vladomir Zagorovsky, director general of the Murmanrybprom fishery company, which owns the boats, said Norwegian authorities had questioned the captain, demanded that he sign legal documents written in English, and refused to present copies to the ship's owner.
"The captain speaks fluent English but not enough to comprehend the texts of legal documents," he said.
On Monday, the Norwegian Coast Guard detained the fishing boat Kapitan Gorbachev and the transport vessel Dmitry Pokramovich near the island of Medvezhy in the Barents Sea after the boats entered a 12-mile exclusive fishing zone without permission.
The deputy governor of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard said earlier today the ships could be released if the owners posted bail of $100,000-$200,000 to guarantee payment of the fines a Norwegian court could impose if it proved the ships' crews were guilty of unauthorized fish reloading in Norway's territorial waters.
These latest arrests come in the wake of last week's drama involving the Elektron trawler, which the Norwegians pursued across the Barents Sea for five days after accusing the Russian crew of violating Norwegian fishing regulations.
