Japan imposes tougher penalties against foreign coral poachers

Japan's parliament enacted on Wednesday two bills that will impose tougher penalties on coral poachers in its waters in the Pacific Ocean amid increasing Chinese violators.
The bills, both proposed by the government and the ruling party, will be effective from Dec. 7.
According to the revised law regulating fishing operations by foreigners, the maximum fine on illegal fishing by foreign nationals in Japanese territorial waters, about 22 kilometers from the coast, will be sharply increased from JPY 4 million (USD 34,000) to JPY 30 million (USD 260,000). With the amended law on the exercise of the sovereign right for fishery, the penalty for unauthorized fishing by foreign vessels in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) will be also raised from JPY 10 million (USD 85,000) to JPY 30 million.
The EEZ is defined as sea areas 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from shore under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Red corals are highly valued in China, where they are used for jewelry. The Japan Coast Guard said earlier this month it spotted more than 200 foreign vessels, believed to be Chinese poaching boats, operating in waters around the Ogasawara and Izu islands off Tokyo.
Japan has lodged repeated protests with China over poaching of coral by Chinese fishermen in Japanese territorial waters and demanded preventive steps to take more steps to crack down, but intrusions have continued.