Is there a serious problem with "massive" illegal fishing by Ukrainians in the Czech Republic? No, that's not true: data provided to Lead Stories from the national association about fishing activity in the country don't show anything like this.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on August 20, 2024. The caption of the video in Czech, translated by Lead Stories staff into English, reads: "Fishermen from Horšovský Týn in the Pilsen region complain that Ukrainians are poaching their fish. SPD supports the fishermen."
The person speaking in the video is Tomio Okamura, the leader of the second-largest opposition party, Freedom and Direct Democracy, or SPD. He says in Czech, as translated by Lead Stories staff:
Lukas, you are a local fisherman and I have heard that there is a big problem in the Pilsen area, that Ukrainians are fish poaching here, our fishermen are raising fish and then someone is basically stealing it from you for free....
I repeat, local fishermen are saying that Ukrainians are fish poaching here, the fish that our fishermen are raising here, and they are doing it, according to the information you say, quite massively, so of course this is unacceptable, and I have to say that it bothers me...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Aug 21 09:37:03 2024 UTC)
Okamura (archived here) also says in the video that he will inform Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan about the problem in Parliament, although the minister will ignore it, according to Okamura, because of his pro-Ukrainian views. Okamura´s SPD party platform (archived here) is against helping Ukrainian refugees and sending aid to Ukraine.
Data provided by the Czech Fishing Association (archived here) - a non-profit organization that oversees the issuance of fishing permits in the Czech Republic and proposes candidates for the role of "fishing guards," who check fishermen's permits and the legality of their fishing methods - show that poaching and the number of checks carried out by fishing guards increased slightly in 2023 compared to the previous year. However, the data does not show a severe problem or a massive increase in cases, as claimed in the TikTok video, considering the several hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who reside in the Czech Republic after fleeing the war. Moreover, the data showed that the numbers from the pre-war year 2021 were not that different.
The Czech Fishing Association registered 223 cases of poaching and 1,790 violations during 86,942 checks in 2022. In 2023, the numbers increased to 318 cases of poaching and 2,110 violations during 89,608 checks. The association registered 264,455 members in 2022 and 261,788 members in 2023. Regarding poaching cases and violations, the association does not have data on the nationalities of these fishermen, according to Czech Fishing Association spokesman Lukas Mares (archived here), who sent the above figures to Lead Stories by email on August 21, 2024. In a pre-war year, 2021, the association registered 228 poaching cases and 1,745 violations with 262,568 members.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians came to the country as refugees from the war after the Russian invasion started in 2022. As of the end of 2023, the Czech Republic registered 374,642 foreigners with temporary protection status (mostly of Ukrainian nationality), according to an annual migration report (archived here) from the Ministry of Interior Affairs.
The association has registered great interest from Ukrainians in obtaining fishing licenses or permits and has provided them with fishing rules in Ukrainian, Mares also wrote in Czech, translated into English by Lead Stories staff. According to the association spokesman, some Ukrainian fishermen often do not follow the rules for sport fishing, but this is also true for Czech fishermen. The most significant difference between Czech and Ukrainian fishermen is that the former usually practice the catch-and-release style of fishing, while the Ukrainians go fishing to eat the catch, Mares wrote.
"We see nothing wrong with either way of thinking, as long as fishermen keep their catch within the set limits, there is no problem," Mares added, as translated by Lead Stories staff. He wrote that there is often a perception that Ukrainian fishermen catch all kinds of fish, including protected fish, undersized fish, or fish over the daily limit. That is true, but this is the case with the Czechs as well, Mares added.
The Czech Fishing Association also registered many hoaxes about Ukrainians on social media, including rumors that Ukrainian fishermen have different permits prices or even get them for free, which is "nonsense," Mares further explained in his email. He wrote that the association´s rules are the same for all fishermen, including Ukrainian ones.
The head of the local fishing associaton in Horšovský Týn (archived here), the town that is mentioned in the TikTok video above, Stanislav Pek, was cited by X account "Bezelží" (archived here) and in its blog on Medium.cz (archived here), as saying that neither the fishing guards, nor the police, authorized persons from the relevant fisheries authority, nor the managers of the area have recorded any cases of poaching this year that could be linked to Ukrainians. Pek has not responded to calls or messages from Lead Stories requesting comment as of August 23, 2024, at the time of writing.
Lead Stories contacted Jaromir Lev, a fishing guard who works in the western part of the Czech Republic, around Pilsen, which includes the town mentioned in the TikTok video, on the phone on August 23, 2024. During the phone conversation, Lev said that according to his personal experience, cases of fish poaching, or violating fishing rules, by Ukrainians have been rising since 2022 after refugees came, but he also said that the claims in the video are "exaggerated."
Fishing regulations (archived here), including bills related to fishing, are published on the association´s website.
The SPD party launched an aggressive campaign (archived here) in August 2024 to attract voters ahead of the municipal election after it failed in the European ones (archived here), pushing its anti-migrant (archived here) and anti-Ukrainian aid rhethoric, several Czech media reported.
