"The trawler was catching herring in the area of Norway's economic zone, which has been closed for fishing since October 15," Valentin Balashov said. "But the captain of the ship for some reason continued fishing and caught a total of 160 metric tons of herring."
He said the trawler, Tynda, was stopped and examined outside the zone, and would now have to pay bail in the Norwegian port of Tromse. The ship owner will also have to pay a fine to be set by a Norwegian court, Balashov said.
Russia and Norway have been involved in a decades-long dispute over maritime boundaries in the Barents Sea, which is rich in oil and gas reserves and bio resources, although they have made some progress in recent years.
Detentions of fishing ships from Russia, which does not recognize Norway's exclusive rights near the Spitsbergen Archipelago, have been frequent in recent years.
A drama took place in October 2005, when the Norwegians pursued a Russian vessel with two Norwegian inspectors on board across the Barents Sea for five days after trying to detain it over illegal fishing.
The captain of the Elektron was later fined $3,900 for poaching, but acquitted of illegally holding people.
