The public associations “Ecospectrum” of Bender and “Eco-Tiras” of Chisinau during a year implemented a project to assess the scale of illegal fishing on the Nistru/Dniester River with the involvement of civil society. This way, 82 working trips were made in May 2022 – April 2023 and 363 violations of fishing rules and cases of poaching were identified during these. Out of these, 148 violations were detected on the right side of the Dniester, while 215 – on the left side.

In a news conference hosted by IPN, “Ecospectrum” head Ivan Ignatiev said that the project was launched a year ago and is carried out in the framework of the EU Confidence Building Measures Program that is implemented by UNDP with the financial support of the EU. The project was implemented by groups of ichthyologists and hydrobiologists from Chisinau and Tiraspol with the involvement of relevant agencies and associations of amateur fishermen on the right and left banks of the Dniester. The goal of the project was to involve the public in the process of monitoring and reducing the negative impact of poaching on fish stocks and biodiversity of the Dniester.

Ivan Ignatiev noted that they also paid visits to markets in Tiraspol and Chisinau and identified 270 cases of selling poached fish there, including 178 cases on the right side of the Nistru and 92 cases on the left side of the river. The damage caused to the fish stocks of the Nistru on the right bank was estimated at over €5.2 million, while on the left bank – at over €128,000. “We see that the figures are rather large. But we note that we focused on two markets. We didn’t analyze the situation in other large localities from both sides of the Nistru,” said the leader of “Ecospectrum”.

Doctor of biology Sergey Filipenko, hydrobiologist of the Tiraspol State University, said that public monitoring is a practice dating from the Soviet times. This activity was somehow excluded and was reanimated as part of this project. A number of activities were carried out, but the attraction of society’s attention was one of the most important objectives.

“We managed to identify the main irregularities in fishing on the Dniester. Firstly, it goes to poaching, mainly catching of fish when this is not allowed. The sale of the illegally caught fish is an indicator of poaching. Amateur fishing does not imply the sale of fish. If we speak about the violations of fishing rules, these are minor and are mostly committed out of ignorance. In this regard, informative material was prepared within the project and this stipulates the rights and obligations of amateur anglers,” stated Sergey Filipenko.

Doctor of biology Ilia Trombitski, executive director of “Eco-Tiras” International Environmental Association of River Keepers of Moldova, said the time is opportune to improve the situation in terms of legislation on biodiversity, etc. The current legislation does not even stipulate the term ‘poaching’. But there is industrial poaching in case of fish and the authorities should combat this. The role of public inspectors should be strengthened.

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