MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The damage inflicted by poachers obtaining sturgeons from the Caspian Sea makes RUB1.5m (USD50,135) a day, a spokesman for the Federal Border Guard Service (FBGS) told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
Several dozens of small vessels sail off to poach in the Caspian Sea daily. Each of them obtains 50 to 250 kilograms of sturgeons.
The border guards combating poachers are ofren facing organized crime and open resistance of local criminals, the spokesman said. For example, poachers have disobeyed to servicemen of the Makhachkala territorial department of the North Caucasus regional border guard department five times this year. Border guards had to use arms to localize conflicts.
The latest detentions of poachers took place on Monday afternoon. An alarm group of a picket located near the Sulakskaya Bay detained three citizens of Russia and one of Azerbaijan who had on them 200kg of sturgeons obtained illegally. Also on Monday a patrol ship of the Caspian naval brigade detained two more poachers with some 300 meters of nets near the Chechen Island.