Prosecutor's office is dissatisfied with fish protection agency and water police

 

On April 9 at the meeting chaired by the Governor of Atyrau Oblast, the activity of Ural-Caspian interregional fish protection inspection was subjected to sharp criticism.

 

Serik Shalabaev, the deputy prosecutor of the oblast, made a report where he, in particular, said that the activity of fish protection agency should be considered as unsatisfactory. He said that their main activity nowadays is trawling of old and abandoned fishing nets.

 

In 2012 the inspectors of fish protection agency рыбоохраны trawled 1294 nets, in the 1st quarter of 2013 they trawled 314 nets. And the conclusion is as follows: from the total number of last year violations that are of criminal character, 77% relate to detection of nets.  

 

- Judge it yourselves: with the staff of 306 people, last year and in the 1st quarter of 2013, the inspectors have not revealed a single case related to poaching. On January 22 the employees of nature protection prosecutor's office and financial police detained the MAN truck on Atyrau-Astrakhan highway with 16 tons of fish. On February 1, on Atyrau-Dossor highway KAMAZ truck with 11 tons of fish was detained. In the course of investigation it was established that the illegal fish was purchased from the poachers. The conclusion is that either the fish protection agency doesn't do a good job or they are connected with poachers, - said Shalabaev. He also had no mercy on water police:

- Absolute helplessness in their fight against poachers was demonstrated by the department of fight against infringement of fish stocks. Last year and in the 1st quarter of 2013, the department solved only 119 crimes. Out of that number 110 cases were connected with facts of trading illegal fish and only 9 facts with poaching. It turns out that the work of water police is narrowed down to detection of the facts of illegal fish trading. Therefore, the criminal groups engaged in poaching, remain unpunished.

 

According to the prosecutor, fish and caviar confiscated from poachers, are not delivered to the points of sale in due time and the seized property is plundered:

 

- During the audit in Nadezhda-1 LLP, the company that stores fish and caviar confiscated from poachers, it was established that due to negligence of the criminal prosecution bodies during the period of 2010-2013, the shortage made 757 kg of sturgeon and 179 kg of black caviar. In the warehouses of Nadezhda-1 LLP the audit team discovered 430 kg of tainted fish and 18 kg of spoiled black caviar. Pre-investigation has been initiated on these facts.

 

And we don't know what conclusions based on this report were made by the Governor Baktykozha Izmukhambetov and the heads of law enforcement agencies, because after Shalabaev's report all the journalists were asked to leave the conference hall. The next day we phoned the chief of fish protection agency Alibek Bukharbaev who said that there were no resolutions made at the end of the meeting. He said that the heads of state organs simply agreed to closely interact during "Bekire-2013" (Sturgeon-2013) operation.

 

By Murat Sultangaliev

Photo by Kanat Eleuov

April 12 2013, 08:01