The Fishery Inspection, which operates as part of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (MAFWA), will work to suppress the illegal sale of fish within its jurisdiction, but in suppressing this illegality, it needs the help of both legal fishermen, other competent services and the public itself.
Katarina Burzanović, Acting Director of the Directorate for Fisheries in the MAŠV, told "Vijesta".
Asked to comment on the attitude of the fisheries inspection to the problem of illegal street sales of fish in Tivat, which is complained about by duly registered commercial fishermen who regularly sell their catch on the city market, i.e. their dissatisfaction with the previous activities of the fisheries inspection in this matter, Burzanović said that MAŠV aware of the problem of selling fish on the street.
"In response to specific reports from fishermen from Budva, on several occasions, inspectors went to the scene and carried out supervision. Their powers are defined in Articles 113 and 114 of the Law on Sea Fisheries. I think that in the aforementioned case of an anonymous fisherman from Tivat, the only disputed location for selling fish is the street. I assume that the sale of fish is carried out from a vehicle, for which our inspectors also have authority, in terms of supervision. In a couple of situations, according to the inspector's statements, and there are records of the performed supervision, no irregularity was found, because the fish had a proper declaration and proof of origin. The only point of dispute was the point of sale, for which our inspectors do not have jurisdiction, and therefore they cannot remove the found person from the point of sale. What remains for them as a possibility is to call the communal police and inform them about the observed irregularity", said Burzanović.
The problem of illegal street sales of fish in Tivat has escalated again in the past period, which is why a few legal and properly registered entrepreneurs who are engaged in commercial fishing and legally sell their catch on the city market alone, are very endangered. As "Vijesti" has already announced, they point out that since the corona pandemic and the economic crisis began, the legal sale of fish in that city has decreased by half. In the meantime, illegal sales have escalated again, in which fish and other marine organisms, usually poached, are sold on the streets, directly from cars, or these resellers take them directly to customers' home addresses.
"Recently, this phenomenon has gained so much momentum that our existence is literally threatened, but the competent state authorities are doing almost nothing to suppress this type of gray economy," one of Tivat's legal commercial fishermen told "Vijesta" that he did not want to be he found the name in the newspaper.
His claims and statements in the text, in the meantime, provoked the reaction of the fisheries inspector Dragana Kandić Perović who, in an email sent to the journalist and with which several of her colleagues from the MAŠV were familiar, asserted, among other things, that "the rights and obligations of inspectors are prescribed in Art. 113 of the Law on Sea Fisheries and Mariculture, and in that article of the Law, nowhere does it say that fisheries inspectors control the street sale of fish",
"The places where fish traffic is controlled are strictly prescribed. Selling from public areas is the exclusive responsibility of the municipal inspection," said the inspector, who told the journalist that "the entire text is directed against the work of the inspection, unfortunately, we know who gave it to you and who contacted you to write it."
Asked to comment on such attitudes of his employee, especially the one that the fisheries inspector supposedly knows who the journalist's sources are, and whether this means that the fisheries inspectorate deals with stalking journalists, and not with preventing poaching and the illegal sale of fish and other marine organisms, Burzanović told "News ” said that she was “sorry about the obvious misunderstanding with Inspector Kandić”.
"I believe that with a joint approach, with mutual understanding, a solution to this problem can be reached. The Directorate for Fisheries is open to any type of cooperation, therefore there is no need for fishermen to be anonymous, on the contrary, I urge them to respond to any observed irregularity and report it to the competent inspector," said Burzanović.
What the law enables the fisheries inspection
Pursuant to Article 113 of the Law on Sea Fisheries and Mariculture, for which inspector Dragana Kandić Perović claims that "nowhere in that article of the Law does it say that fisheries inspectors control the street sale of fish", the Fishery Inspection, as it says, "in addition to the powers of inspectors established by the law regulating inspection supervision", has the authority to inspect and control markets, warehouses, catering facilities, i.e. restaurants, wharves-ports, piers and similar facilities of importance for the trade of fish and other marine organisms, as well as fish products; enters the premises, next to the boathouse, or the vehicle in which fish and other marine organisms or fishing equipment are kept or transported and performs an inspection of the premises or vehicle and stops the vehicle in which the fish is transported; stop the vehicle for the purpose of checking for fish and other marine organisms; examine the person who, in his opinion, can provide the information he needs in performing inspection supervision; stop and inspect a vehicle suspected of carrying fish caught by poaching or using illegal fishing gear.
Article 114 of the same law, in addition to other administrative measures established by the Law on Inspection and Supervision, gives the fishing inspector the authority to: order the stopping of a vehicle that is reasonably suspected of carrying fish and other marine organisms and the equipment used for that illegal catch; order the handing over of items that he justifiably suspects have been used in a misdemeanor; confiscate the fishing vessel, means of transport, fishing equipment, documents and other objects, with which the offense was committed, and prohibit the landing, display for sale, trade, transport and possession of fish and other marine organisms and fish products, as well as the use of fish and other marine organisms and fish products in restaurants contrary to this law.
Burzanović did not specifically respond to the request of "Vijesti" to comment on the failure of the fisheries inspection to suppress the illegal street sale of fish in connection with the above-mentioned legal provisions, i.e. whether the letter of Inspector Kandić-Perović to the journalist confirms that this civil servant does not know the provisions of the law, the implementation and observance of which she should carried out by official duty.
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