Police and the Russian National Guard are on round-the-clock duty in the Khabarovsk region to arrest poachers. Now valuable breeds of fish go to spawn under enhanced protection. In the past several weeks dozens of criminal cases have been opened, but it doesn't stop illegal fishermen as each season brings tens of millions of rubles to poachers. Tatyana Basnina is reporting.
Police! Stop! The fishing boat is still trying to get away from the chase for a few seconds, but the race is obviously lost. Police demands the offenders to put their hands on the glass to prevent armed resistance. These days the fish go to spawn, and all poachers are afraid of vessel seizure most of all.
What's this? Gentlemen, turn around, what's this? Is this how you're boating? Documents for the boat?
There are more than 16 tails of chum salmon in the boat, which is enough to initiate a criminal case, the 45th of the season. On Amur, 100 kilograms of sturgeon caviar, 4,000 kg of salmon caviar, and tons of illegally caught fish have already been seized. But according to those who legally work on the river, this is not the whole poachers' take.
Now, the whole Amur is divided into fishing areas. Borders aren't visible on the surface, but as the fishermen say, almost every meter is occupied. Of course fishers are doing their best to prevent outsiders from entering their territory.
Some even hire private security companies to do this. But only medium and large-scale fishermen can afford it. The tribal communities of indigenous small peoples of the North, working on the Amur, can't afford the guards.
Outsiders' boats are entering their areas day and night, unlike the controllers. There are only 3 fish protection inspectors in the Ulch district, 5 villages for each of them. One inspector can't cover such an area.
Amur is a passageway through which salmon goes to spawning rivers from the sea. If the females don't spawn, in 4 years there will be no fish in this region. So, posts of public fish inspectors and observers are being arranged in the Ulch district. Fishermen cover all the costs, provide boats and fuel.
There have been attempts to pass by us, but we warned the people that they would be photographed, and their numbers and faces would be transferred to the inspection. Inspectors take the poacher's portraits with drones.
Rotor wing assistants can fly up to a height of two kilometers, and catch up not only to a boat, but a speedboat. If the camera date and time are correctly set, the shots are considered proof. Both administrative and criminal cases can be opened based on them.
Tatyana Basnina, Sergey Zabelin for Vesti from Khabarovsk.
