Bering Sea pollock fishermen on Wednesday saw something they won't soon forget.
US fishing vessels chasing Alaska pollock in the Bering Sea had a close encounter with a fleet of Russian warships, according to Alaska Public Media.
“They are telling American fishing vessels to move out of the way,” Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats, told the media outlet.
“They’ve got some submarines and destroyers and nobody knows anything about it.”
The US Coast Guard was notified of the encounters and was told by the Alaska Command at Anchorage’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson the Russian military was doing “pre-scheduled military operations."
The pollock boats were operating within the US exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which reserves fishing rights for American boats but doesn’t block international vessels from entering, according to the Coast Guard.
Paine’s members told him their vessels saw five Russian warships and possibly two submarines.
“If you’ve got a net in the water and a submarine’s coming through,” Paine said, “you’re going to lose the battle.”
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