On October 3, residents had closed the Noraduz section of the road leading to Gavar simply because there was a ban on transferring fish from Gavar. According to non-official sources, that took a couple of hours. After coming to terms with the chief region policeman in regard to fishing there, the fishers opened the road. You feel pity when you hear the fisherman say: ”How am I going to take care of my children? We can’t turn into thieves, can we?” The woman working as a fish seller turned reseller says: ”If I don’t go to the market to do my job for one day, my family will starve the next day. I am not doing anything illegal. I sell the fish after they are caught. Let them put a ban on fishing if they can and confiscate our products and beat us down. The fish that is fresh out of the water can not be rotten”. As you listen to the head of the department of Ecology of the Gegharkunik region Hambartsum Hambartsumyan, you forget about the fisher, the fish seller and the consumer. You think about the type of fish called whitefish. “Due to the large amount of fish in the Sevan Lake, fishing has been banned since June 2005 by the decision of the minister of ecology. According to another decision made by the minister of ecology, fishing for crabs and the caras type of fish is allowed until November the 1st. This means that fishing for whitefish will be banned until December 25. So, as of today, fishing and selling whitefish is illegal and fishers will be punished for doing so. There is too much whitefish and this is dangerous because the fishers fish for the last maternal group. This can be considered as the maternal group which lays fish eggs very early. So, after fishing for them, the supply of fish in the lake will become a problem for years. The ban is more than justified. As for the closing of the Noraduz section of the road in connection with the fishing ban, that is just not fair. But perhaps the fishers understand that you can not exchange the work sites which have been functioning for years for earning money for a couple of days. If they are fishing for the maternal group of fish and lose the chance to earn some money, then they have to head abroad in order to take care of themselves financially abroad,” says H. Hambartsumyan.
