He noted, however, that all measures had been taken on the border to prevent the virus from penetrating into Russia.
Answering a question put by the RIA Novosti correspondent, Pavel Tarasenko noted that "the fact that after active measures were taken in Japan to prevent poacher catches from coming into that country many shadow companies began to dispatch the catches to China, North Korea and South Korea causes grave concern in the Chinese direction".
Pavel Tarasenko said that the heads of the Russian and Chinese border-guard services have been taking measures to raise a barrier in the way of poacher catches to China.
The General noted that in 2003 the border guards' ships and patrol craft inspected over 3,000 Russian and foreign vessels. "More than 700 Russian and 54 foreign ships were fined for different violations of the catch rules", he said. More than 140 tons of ill-gotten aquatic products were confiscated and sold in favour of the state.
Over 214,000 live crabs were put into the natural environment, and over 7,000 crab traps were confiscated. As many as 33 coastal bases for processing marine bioresources were liquidated.