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Turkish Coast Guard: Protecting stocks from illegal fishing

Istanbul, 25 Nov (EFE), (Camera: Erdem Sahin / Ilya U. Topper).- "Fifteen centimeters, very good, very good". The inspector returns a pair of jack mackerel to the ship's crate and bends over to check if another of the silvery fish that flopped onto the deck under the glare of a spotlight is also big enough to go to market. It is nearly midnight on the Bosphorus.Ahmet Yavuz has been with the Coast Guard for two decades, and has spent the last four years on fishing patrols, so he knows the regulatory sizes by heart. "Anchovy, nine centimeters. Horse mackerel and red mullet, thirteen centimeters. Bonito, 25", using a sort of of tin spade with a measuring ruler marked into it on which he places each fish."Our work is fundamental, because if the species are caught before they reach maturity and can spawn, they will become extinct," the inspector says while he throws overboard some "little fish" that have slipped through the net.If there are only a few specimens that don’t comply with the regulations, the boat in question will escape a fine."They can have up to 15 percent of ‘trash’ fish, that is, fish below the regulation size or species different from the one being sought," says Yavuz, while he is careful not to cause a moray eel to snake through the jack mackerel. "If it is more, we confiscate the catch and impose a fine.FOOTAGE OF THE TURKISH COAST GUARD.