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Latvia: Illegal cod haul left to the owner |
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Friday, 19 February 2010 11:48 |
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To increase the valuable but still vulnerable cod population countries around the Baltic Sea regularly develop different protection programs, that limit its catch and promise heavy penalties for poachers. However Latvia’s stand towards cod poachers seem to be ambiguous, reports the Latvian Fisheries Marketing and Information Centre. A seven-ton haul of cod, which was captured at the beginning of the February at the port of Liepāja, has not been confiscated, but left for the owner of the ship to use. The State Environmental Service (SES) assumes that the haul is possibly already sold. The Service declares that it has not enough resources to take the haul away, meanwhile the fishermen point that inspectors are lazy as they do not get any bonuses anymore. According to Felikss Klagišs of the State Environmental Service, illegally caught cod hauls are not a rarity, but seven tons is a big catch. The crew declared that they had not caught the fish – they just had it transferred. However, this is also forbidden. It was impossible to contact the owner of the ship due to his vacation leave. At the moment the company Baltreids, that owns the vessel, can be fined LVL200 to 3000 (EUR285 – 4285), although the value of the catch can reach upto LVL10,000 (EUR14,285). The SES says they have been insisting on an increase in penalties for several years already, but the changes have stuck in the Ministry of Justice.
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