TBILISI, January 25 (RIA Novosti) - Coast guards in southwest Georgia have detained a Turkish vessel for alleged poaching in the Black Sea, Georgian police said Thursday.
Environmental inspectors and coast guards discovered 10,000 metric tons of anchovy on board the Mehmet Kaptan-3, which was fishing off the coast of Ajaria, an autonomous republic in Georgia.
Under Georgian law, poachers face fines of up to 50,000 lari ($29,400).
A court will determine the compensation to be paid for the haul, whose value is estimated at some 300,000 lari ($176,400).
A Georgian court ruled on January 15 that the captains of Russian and Ukrainian vessels seized near Abkhazia, northwest Georgia, earlier in January must pay about $23,000 each for illegally fishing in the country's territorial waters.
Valery Rybkin and Sergei Mestnikov, the captains of Russian fishing boat The Grot and Ukraine's SUAR-2, both of which were seized and towed to the Georgian port of Poti on January 10, were remanded in custody for two months by a court, pending trial.
If found guilty, they may face up to five years in prison for crossing the sea border, illegally fishing in Georgian waters, and violating international maritime regulations.
