FOLLONICA – An operation by the Coast Guard of Piombino and Follonica halted an attempt at illegal sea urchin fishing, in the Pratoranieri area of the municipality of Follonica. In the early hours of dawn yesterday, November 6, the Coast Guard personnel carried out the blitz, interrupting the illegal fishing which had started before midnight and returned the sea urchins to their natural habitat.
The operation was completed thanks to targeted intelligence activities in the area and an intense and fruitful collaboration with citizens who love the sea.
The personnel waited until dawn for the poachers to return from their dives to catch them red-handed while loading baskets of sea urchins into a vehicle, before returning to their own region, where the sea urchins would have been sold on the black market in the restaurant sector.
This activity is part of a broader, organic, and complex activity carried out in recent years, which has seen the seizure of over 4,500 (four thousand five hundred) sea urchins, which, in implementation of the regulations for the protection of fishery resources and marine fauna, were immediately released back into the sea, in areas not easily accessible to potential wrongdoers.
Four administrative sanctions were triggered for the poachers, amounting to 6,000 euros.
“The activity of protecting fishery resources and marine fauna” – the Port Authority – Coast Guard – announced – “will continue without interruption to protect marine biological resources, the consumer, fair economic competition, and the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources.
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