By Dario Thuburn
Korsakov, Russia - The only fish you're likely to see at the port of Korsakov on Russia's far eastern island of Sakhalin are the few caught by some locals crouching along the pier.
"Everything goes to Japan," said Sasha, a broad-shouldered 30-year-old who worked as a crab fisher here for five years, pointing out to sea in the direction of Japanese shores 150 kilometres away.
Crab, perch, plaice and other seafood caught by Russian boats in the Sea of Okhotsk and beyond goes directly to Japanese and South Korean ports where prices are far higher, locals say.
Sometimes Russian fishermen poach in restricted waters - even straying into North Korean territory - and shift their illegal cargo directly onto Japanese boats in the open sea, Sasha said.
Border guards say fishing in Russia's Far East is a highly criminalised business worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Sakhalin fishing boss Vasily Naumov, also known as "Yakut", was shot dead in South Korea in 2003.
"I used to work for Yakut. Yakut got shot. He was in the fish business," said Sasha. "Everyone says he was mafia but he was a nice guy... He paid everyone on time."
The business may be lucrative but fishermen here complain of low salaries - which average $1 000 (about R8 000) for three months at sea - as well as restrictive quotas and depleted fish stocks.
"The problems of the fishing industry are very serious," said Alexander Gusto, a candidate from Sakhalin for a by-election to the Russian parliament later this month, in an interview with the "Fisherman of Sakhalin" newspaper.
"The fish are dying and poachers go out and fish," Gusto said.
Sakhalin has been long famed for its rich fish stocks. One Japanese explorer in the 19th century wrote that "the water looked as though it was boiling" because of the multitude of fish.
But fishermen here say the industry is not what it used to be in Soviet times. The collapse of Communism in 1991 has hit infrastructure, such as fish processing capacity.
Some fishermen also complain that the expansion of offshore oil and gas projects in the Sea of Okhotsk may have impacted on the health and quantity of seafood.
"Fishing no longer makes sense," Viktor Zotkin, head of the South Sakhalin Fish Factory, was quoted as saying in Russian media at a meeting with activists from Russia's Green party earlier this year.
Sakhalin Energy, a Shell-led consortium that is developing offshore fields and building a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant near Korsakov, says there is no proven link between its project and lower fish catches.
Fishing in the waters around Sakhalin - a 1,000-kilometre-long island that is often shrouded in mist and surrounded by ice for six months of the year - can also be a dangerous business.
"I sank twice. Once, we lost half the crew in the Tatar Straits. There was a storm and it flipped the boat," Sasha said, referring to the western coast between Sakhalin and the mainland.
Fishermen are particularly fearful of the "okolka", a sheet of ice that covers the boats when waves hit in winter. Unless chipped off with wooden hammers, it can become a thick layer and sink the boat.
Russian border guard patrols add to the danger. Earlier this year, one patrol accidentally shot dead a Japanese fisherman on a boat alleged to be poaching in Russian waters near the Kuril islands.
"Once we got caught by border guards. They called in a military plane. It fired blanks. When it went back for fuel, we repainted the boat, renamed it and put up a different flag," Sasha said.
On a recent visit to Korsakov, border guard patrol boats could be seen in dock. Nearby, work continued on Sakhalin Energy's LNG plant and logs could be seen being loaded onto a large boat.
The sight of Sakhalin's raw riches being shipped out made Sasha regretful as he looked out to sea. "We sell logs to the Koreans and then we buy wooden furniture from them. We just don't have the brains."