Gennady Stepakhno, head of the Russian Fishermen's Union of the North, said the incident occurred over the weekend when the Norwegian Coast Guard service stopped the trawler, the Perseus-3, after it had entered the Scandinavian country's economic zone from neutral waters.
"The coast guard officials inspected the vessel and did not find any signs of suspicious activity," the Russian official said. "However, they questioned the correctness of records in the ship's log and ordered the vessel to sail to a Norwegian port, where it is moored at present."
The official said Norwegian inspectors had been studying the contents of the log thoroughly and it was not clear when the Russian vessel would be released.
The most dramatic episode in a Russian-Norwegian dispute over fishery rights unfolded in October 2005, when the Norwegian Coast Guard service pursued Russia's Elektron trawler across the Barents Sea for five days. The vessel refused to follow Norwegian orders October 15 to go to a port to be checked for alleged fishing violations, and fled into Russian waters with two Norwegian inspectors on board.
Russian officials consistently claim that under a 1920 agreement signed by 48 countries, including Russia, they have equal fishing rights near the Spitsbergen Archipelago.
