Police officers from Herceg Novi and the fisheries inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management early this morning, after extensive operations, discovered a Turkish citizen, EM, fishing for sea cucumbers in the water area of Baošić in Boka Kotorska.
Following a report from citizens that illegal fishing was being carried out in Baošići with the help of breathing apparatus, a little after midnight, the competent services of the Fisheries Inspectorate and the Border Police of Herceg Novi went to the field. Around six o'clock in the morning, while carrying out illegal activities underwater, they caught a Turkish citizen EM with complete diving equipment, including air regulators and five diving bottles, as well as an underwater lamp, a knife and three large fishing jackets.
The Turkish diver, before being detained, managed to discard part of the catch (about two bags) when coming out of the sea. These two bags could not be removed on that occasion, but in the car "Renault Scenic" (BD-BN015) used by a Turkish citizen, about 300 kilograms of sea cucumbers were found, i.e. the amount of about 5.000 individuals, as well as 19 empty plastic buckets ready to store the catch that EM has rejected in the meantime.
The diving equipment was confiscated, and the Turkish poacher was handed over to the competent state prosecutor's office for further processing, while the entire catch was returned to the sea.
Two species of sea cucumbers caught by EM in the Baošići water area, in the amount of about 5.000 individuals, are on the list of protected species whose hunting and possession in Montenegro is prohibited and constitutes a criminal offense. This was established by experts from the Institute of Marine Biology who, together with the Environmental Inspection, were invited and inspected on the spot.
The vehicle used by the Turkish poacher is registered to the company "Bilas Sea Food" doo from Budva. That company was recently registered in Montenegro for the processing and canning of fish, crustaceans and molluscs. According to unofficial information, processed sea cucumbers are sold on the black market at a price of at least 3.000 euros per kilogram. This means that the Turkish poacher who was caught yesterday had with him a catch worth around 900 thousand euros on the black market.
By the way, sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea. They are marine animals with a leathery body covering and an elongated sausage-like body, several centimeters long. Some species swim like jellyfish, while other species (sessile organisms) are attached to the seabed. Many of them have been collected for human consumption for centuries because sea cucumbers, especially in Asia, are highly valued as a real delicacy. Sea cucumbers, by the way, play a very important and useful role in the marine ecosystem, because they help recycle nutrients, breaking down litter and other organic matter, after which bacteria can continue the decomposition process.
For a long time, sea cucumbers were intended only for the richest as a special delicacy. Sea cucumbers are considered a delicacy due to their unusual and tough texture, and the demand for them is huge, especially in the Asian market. They are also considered medicinal. After it was determined that the catch of sea cucumbers by a Turkish citizen near Baošić was indeed a protected species, the police officers of the Herceg Novi Security Center handed over this case to the primary state prosecutor in Herceg Novi, who ordered detention.
The civic initiative "Stop Poaching", which fights against all types of poachers at sea, has warned that this is not the first time that foreigners have been caught committing this crime in Montenegrin waters, and that it is always about Turkish citizens and that it always turns out that they "have a connection in one way or another with the company 'Bilal Sea Food' from Budva." They emphasized that the company, whose founder and owner is also a foreign citizen, "has a permit for processing sea cucumbers that it received from the competent administration in our country, even though fishing for sea cucumbers is prohibited in our country."
"How it came to be, it is not for us to debate, but this part certainly is, because it has really become unbearable to deal with, apart from the domestic problems of poaching, and with the new, imported one, because it seems that we do not have enough of the domestic ones", they stated from the initiative. "Stop poaching" on Facebook.
They expressed their gratitude to the Novi police, the Fisheries Inspectorate, the Ecological Inspectorate and the experts of the Institute of Marine Biology from Kotor and expressed the expectation that the acting prosecutor will adequately qualify the crime committed by EM and prosecute the Turkish citizen.
"That person has been detained, all the necessary evidence is there, and we really hope that the painstaking work that led to the prosecution of this person will be verified by an adequate verdict, which, we hope, will be a turning point and a real step forward towards the desired values , protect state resources, and that foreign citizens will be denied the possibility of new ventures of this type. We also hope that the necessity of issuing a permit for the processing of protected species in our country will be re-examined, no matter how many foreign citizens provide guarantees that they will only process imported marine organisms, because it was evidently about catching and processing sea cucumbers from our sea. Which is a lot, it's a lot," they stated from the "Stop poaching" initiative.
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