Poachers attack lake guards

Supervisors of the Skadar Lake National Park were attacked the day before yesterday in Montenegrin territorial waters, after they caught an Albanian citizen poaching.

The incident occurred on October 31st, in the early morning hours, in the Mali Moranik area, and the Police Directorate was notified of everything.

According to the supervisors, they were conducting a regular inspection that night as part of official activities to combat illegal fishing.

Fisherman and boat manager Momcilo Kukuličić He told the police that from October 30th until nine o'clock the next morning he was at his workplace, together with a colleague. Dražen Radunović.

During the night, he told the police, they monitored the area around Mali Moranik because they had operational information about possible poaching.

"Around 5:00 a.m. we noticed a faint light and heard a motor near the island of Beška, towards Moračnik. We stayed there for a while to monitor the situation, and at dawn we approached. Around 5:45 a.m. I noticed a vessel heading towards the border at a higher speed, more precisely towards Koljen," Kukuličić's statement reads.

He explained that he and a colleague caught up with and stopped the poacher in their boat about a hundred meters before the border with Albania, and saw four large bundles of nets and about 120 kilograms of fish in his boat.

He added that the poacher did not possess any personal documents.

"We immediately tied the boat to ours and approached the official shop with the intention of bringing it to the official premises in Vranjina. After about ten minutes, he took out a knife, which is why I immediately said to him: 'Put the knife down', which he did. At that moment, another green Yamaha boat was moving in our direction at a higher speed from the direction of Omerova Glavica, in which there were two more foreign citizens. One of these people started to swing an oar, probably with the intention of scaring us, but we continued towards Vranjina. Then these two people started their boat in our direction, and on that occasion they hit our boat, in the rear left part... That's when I was injured," Kukuličić wrote in a statement given to the police, which "Vijesti" had access to.

It was explained that the poacher whose boat they had tied to theirs then started reversing at high speed, and the other boat simultaneously started to hit them, which is why they had to untie the boat they had "captured"...

"In order to avoid certain drowning."

"After all, these two vessels headed towards Albania at a higher speed," Kukuličić's statement reads.