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Azerbaijan: Poachers Out of Control
[03:05 pm] 19 May, 2007

Use of explosives devastating rare Caspian fish
stocks. When a south wind blows from the Caspian Sea
towards the coastal village of Hovsan, 32 kilometres
east of the Azerbaijani capital Baku, hundreds of dead
fish are washed ashore.

The fish are the victims of illegal poachers and
indiscriminate methods of killing their prey that are
threatening stocks of sturgeon, an endangered species
and the most precious resource of the Caspian.

In spring, all kinds of fish swim for shallow waters
in order to spawn caviar in warmer waters. Here they
fall prey to illegal explosives used by the poachers.

Along the shoreline you can meet amateur fishermen
with rods but also men who are evidently poachers
getting ready to lay explosive charges.

The ordinary fishermen say that for the last ten years
poachers have been catching fish on this spot, mostly
unhindered and using dynamite or home-made explosives
made of fertilizers. They go out fishing in motorboats
either early in the morning or late at night.

Fishing is one of the most lucrative businesses in
modern-day Azerbaijan. On the black market, a kilo of
fresh sturgeon can be bought for 10 manats (12 US
dollars) while a kilo of black caviar costs around 120
manats (140 dollars). Overseas, these prices can be
dozens of times higher.

International alarm about a steep decline in sturgeon
stocks prompted the international agency the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species, CITES, to halt exports of Beluga caviar from
the Caspian Sea in 2006.

CITES lifted the ban in 2007, prompting objections
from many environmentalists. One of them, Dr Ellen
Pikitch, co-founder of the organisation Caviar Emptor,
which monitors the caviar trade, called the decision a
`death sentence’, maintaining that the Beluga Sturgeon
has lost more than 90 per cent of its population in
recent years.

The Caspian Fish Company has a monopoly over most
fishing in the Azerbaijani sector of the sea, but it
appears powerless to rein in the poachers.

One of the poachers, who asked not to be named, told
IWPR that one explosive charge is capable of causing
an underground shock wave 15-20 metres in radius,
which throws most of the dead fish to the surface.

`The big heavy fish stay down below,’ he said. `We get
these fish out of the depths with the help of divers.’
Others said it was rare to use divers and that most of
the big dead fish come ashore within two or three
days, creating a horrible pile of carcases on the
beach.

This is a crowded shoreline, home also to a number of
summer houses for wealthy Baku residents, a special
fishermen’s zone, a bathing beach and 10-km-long
oil-and-gas terminal, built in Soviet times 55 years
ago.

A local resident, who also declined to be named, said
he had seen how the oil terminal, which extends into
the sea, has also been damaged by the poachers’
explosions and that it was now on the verge of
collapse.

A spokesman for the Azerbaijani oil company SOCAR
declined to confirm this information to IWPR. He said
the terminal was well guarded and it was impossible
for strangers and especially for poachers to gain
access to its territory.

The amateur fisherman are also unhappy about the
poachers in their midst.

`Fishing is a recreation for us,’ said 45-year-old
Rizvan Makhmudov. `And when your line doesn’t catch
anything all the recreation has gone.’

Makhmudov said he catches fewer and fewer fish and
that the poachers are fishing stocks to the point of
extinction in full view of witnesses.

`Four or five people in motor boats drive up to Gum
island where the amateur fisherman are fishing
legally,’ he said. `One of them chooses a place where
there are a lot of fish, then the boat moves towards
that spot at low speed. Then they light the wicks of
specially prepared explosives in bottles and throw
them in the water.’

Makhmudov said that the blasts killed not just fish,
but also other marine life, such as seals.

Another amateur fisherman, 42-year-old Aydin Bairamov,
said that he had seen illegal poaching take place in
these parts since Soviet times. He said that a number
of influential people who had summer houses here were
now trying to fight the problem on their own
initiative.

One of these is a retired general, Rasul Rasumov, who
is a former head of Azerbaijan’s Police Academy – and
also a keen fisherman. He tries to stop poachers
wherever he can.

But the efforts of individuals are no substitute for
an official clampdown on poaching.

Ehsan Zahidov, a spokesman for Azerbaijan’s interior
ministry, told IWPR his ministry did not play the
leading role in fighting poachers and it was the job
of the department for protection of biological
resources in the environment ministry – although he
added the police were ready to take part in joint
operations if required.

Gulshan Huseinova, press spokesman for the environment
ministry, dismissed the charge that poachers were
operating freely and said her ministry monitored the
situation closely.

`Because of strong winds we haven’t been able recently
to carry out raids in the open sea,’ she said. `In the
Neftchali and Salian regions our officers are
constantly observing the situation. The information
you are talking about has not been proved.’

Environmentalists are especially worried about the way
poachers target fish just as they are spawning.

The area around the Shirvan canal that runs into the
sea in the Salian region is another favourite fishing
ground – and magnet for poachers. During the spawning
season, different kinds of fish head from the sea for
fresh water here. `If of course the nets of the
poachers don’t stop them from reproducing,’ said
47-year-old Jahangir Mirzoyev.

Locals say the number of sturgeon here has fallen
sharply. Ten km up the canal there are plenty of nets
belonging to poachers. One of the men casting a net
said that he paid a monthly bribe to officials to
allow them to continue his trade.

`If it keeps on like this our grandchildren won’t know
about these different kinds of fish,’ said Mirzoyev
bitterly.

An environmental expert Telman Zeinalov, head of the
non-governmental organisation the National Centre for
Ecological Forecasting, said that by acting during the
spawning season and using explosives, the poachers
were destroying whole varieties of fish.

`There is plenty of evidence of poaching and I have no
doubts that the poachers are being protected by senior
officials,’ he said.

By Sabuhi Nasirli in Hovsan and Neftchala (CRS No. 392
17-May-07) Sabuhi Nasirli is a correspondent for
Zerkalo newspaper in Baku.

This article is a product of IWPR’s Cross Caucasus
Journalism Network, supported by the European Union.
The article is republished from IWPR’s Caucasus
Reporting Servic