“There are fewer legal fish.”

We should distinguish between two quantities. The absolute quantity of fish that is fished in the Delta and the quantity that a fisherman catches. In the past, those who fished were relatively few compared to the rest of the population. With a population of 7-8000 inhabitants, the size of Sulina as a city, I don’t think there were more than 100-150 fishermen.
In Sfântu Gheorghe there were 300 or 400, or the whole village was engaged in fishing activity. If we were to add them all up, I suspect there were somewhere around 1000 fishermen in this entire Delta. And back then the quantities of fish were very large, very large. They fished on an industrial level, they fished only during permitted periods, they didn’t fish during prohibition. Yes, there was fish then, but it was fish that you could see.
At the moment, in addition to the authorized fishermen, there is also a large number of less authorized fishermen or poachers. Also, licensed fishermen do not always respect all the necessary permitted periods. And then a large part of the fish is not visible. It is not visible. What used to be visible and there was a lot of it and appeared everywhere, including in propaganda films, is now not visible, it is just leaking under the counters. I don’t think that less is fished now than it was 30 or 40 years ago. I also don’t think that there are much less fish than there were 30 or 40 years ago. It’s just that now they are constantly catching it and there are many doing it. And the Delta is probably panting, steaming from its joints. It’s puffing, it’s hard for it. But we’ve only been here for a few decades. We won’t be able to bring it to its knees. It will find a defense mechanism, it will find a way to shake itself off of us. I believe, I hope.
There are fewer legal fish. For the fish that someone catches, they have to pay taxes. It has to fit within a certain quota. If it exceeds the quota, it can no longer fish that year. If, I repeat, if it declares it, it will have to pay taxes and fees and all kinds of things like that… And then it is easier to take it out and sell it on the black market. It is natural. So you can’t even convict such a person. It is natural to want better, more and cheaper and safer and better for your family. So what do you do? You declare your fish, you pay taxes and you have reached your quota and then for three quarters of the year you sit on the shore and you can’t fish. You don’t hand it over. You don’t hand it over legally, you sell it on the black market.