Mykolaiv Police Detain Two Poachers, Seize ₴1M in Illegal Fish and Gear

In Mykolaiv, police detained two men who were illegally fishing with nets, causing the state more than a million hryvnias in losses. Law enforcement officers seized a car, a boat, and a large number of fish and launched a pre-trial investigation.

This was reported by the press service of the National Police of Mykolaiv region.

In Mykolaiv, police and fisheries patrol officers exposed two poachers who were engaged in illegal fishing on the Ingul River. They were using illegal fishing gear - nets.

The incident occurred on March 12 in the evening while patrolling the coastline of the Ingul River within the city. Inspectors of the water police unit of the Mykolaiv district police department, together with a state inspector of the fisheries patrol, found two men who were illegally fishing for freshwater fish using nets and a rubber boat.

Police officers of the investigative team of the police department No. 1 of the Mykolaiv district administration were called to the scene. During the inspection, they seized the fishermen's car, a rubber boat, six nets with a total length of 450 meters and 535 fish, including pike, perch, roach, crucian carp, ram and pike perch.

According to preliminary estimates, the poachers caused more than one million hryvnias in damage to the state. All the illegal catch was handed over to a fish protection enterprise for storage.

Investigators initiated a pre-trial investigation into the violation under Part 1 of Article 249 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Illegal fishing, hunting or other aquatic fishing". The sanction of this article provides for a sentence of up to three years of imprisonment. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

Earlier, in Mykolaiv, police detained a man who was illegally fishing on the Ingul River with prohibited gear. While patrolling the city, inspectors of the police unit noticed a fisherman on the water who was using a spinning rod with a barbed drachma hook and was using a prohibited fishing method - barging.

In addition, border guards, together with representatives of the water police and the environmental inspection, found a man in Odesa region who was poaching under the cover of night on a boat in a fishing suit. According to preliminary estimates, the total amount of damage caused to the state is almost UAH 8.5 million. And in Kherson region, water police prevented damage to the state in the amount of more than 550 thousand hryvnias. As it turned out, more than 300 crayfish and fish of various species were caught in the nets.

Анна Бальчінос