Environmentalist describes the main problem of the Caspian

By Vestnik Kavkaza

The current week (September 23-28) is the Week of the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan. The Ministry of environment and natural resources of Azerbaijan initiated round tables, devoted to the World Maritime Day.

The senior scientist of P.P. Shirov Institute of Oceanology of the RAS, Vasily Spiridonov, told Vestnik Kavkaza about problems of the Caspian Sea.

According to him, a lot is written about the environment of the Caspian Sea; it is known how much oil waste is dumped there: “Supposedly, it is around 1500 tons annually. However, oil products are not the main problem. The problem of fish resources is well-known. The Caspian has a rather poor ecosystem. There are many species in certain groups, which appeared and formed in the sea. But some groups are absent. So, when an alien species get into the Caspian Sea, they have all chances to take hold there. It happened with comb jelly. Of course this brought nothing good. To describe a common picture, it would be useful, if at least three states got together and held a joint expedition and released a report, like the Russian-Norwegian report on the Barents Sea, on the Caspian Sea because it would make the states do something. Today there is no such report.”

Spiridonov reminded that “the Caspian is a unique sea because it is internal and doesn’t communicate with the world ocean; and today there are five littoral countries. The sea is not divided. Each state has its own policy, its own interests which are determined by certain motives. For someone it is the main source of resources, first of all of oil and gas. For others, geopolitical moments are more important. It is easier for Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan to agree with each other. The dialogue with Iran and Turkmenistan fails.”

Meanwhile, according to the environmentalist, “abilities of the sea environment of the Caspian to self-regulate and adapt are great. The Caspian Sea is situated in rather favorable climate. It means that the majority of oil prolusion can be corrupted by oil-corrupting bacteria under summer temperature. Thus, oil prolusion is probably not the most dangerous and serious problem of the Caspian. Residential wastewater, drain, eutrophication (organic enrichment) are more dangerous. Cyanobacteriae begin to grow on these biogenic elements, as well as other phytoplankton; and it will lead to no good. Water begins to bloom, a great organic mass occur, and nobody utilizes it. Then, it falls on the bottom, corruption begins, oxygen is wasted, and other inhabitants lack oxygen. Te problem of eutrophication is very serious because mineral fertilizers contribute to it as well. Of course today we use less mineral fertilizers, but drain, residential wastewater, purification plants are in awful conditions.”