How to use Caspian resources without damaging the Caspian Sea?

By Vestnik Kavkaza

This summer a detailed plan of complex exploration of Caspian fields on the continental shelf and the Russian part of the Caspian Sea has appeared in Russia. The document, which was developed by the Ministry of Energy, included a plan on development of near-border infrastructure, production islands, transport corridors and security measures. Obviously, development of the huge natural resources on the Caspian shelf needs concentration of technological and financial resources, uniting efforts of leading Russian and international energy and oil-and-gas companies.

“The fourth Caspian Summit will take place in Astana in September. At the summit a moratorium on fishing sturgeon by all Caspian states will be supported,” Alexander Zhilkin, the governor of the Astrakhan Region, predicts. The prepared international document could be a real breakthrough in the sphere of preservation of sturgeon, according to Rossiskaya Gazeta-South.

It is required that the Astrakhan document will describe mechanisms of the moratorium on fishing valuable species of fish, as well as a mechanism of joint monitoring. Today the countries monitor their territories by themselves, while other participants can only trust each other. Closer cooperation between state bodies not only in the environmental sphere, but also the scientific and economic spheres is required.

In the 1970s 96% of all sturgeons in the world were fished in the Caspian Sea. Since that time the number of sturgeons has reduced by a factor of 35-40. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora included all four species of sturgeon which occupy the Caspian Sea on the list of fish which are under threat of extinction: beluga, barbel sturgeon, nosey sturgeon and starred sturgeon. However, poachers continue their illegal activity. Recently, according to the Internal Ministry in Dagestan, the police found out and dispose 270 kg of sturgeon.

In mid-August a session of the Commission on Water Bio-resources of the Caspian Sea took place in Moscow. Delegations from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan participated in it. The sides agreed at the session that the fish resources of the Caspian Sea should be used thoughtfully and be preserved. The Russian delegation was headed by the deputy minister of agriculture, the head of the Federal Fishing Agency, Ilya Shestakov, who told Vestnik Kavkaza about the development of fishing in Russia, including Dagestan.

According to him, the situation with fishing in the Caspian Sea is quite difficult: “Economically, fishing in the Caspian Sea is not very effective in comparison with the Far East and the Northern seas. Ships which are dealing with fishing should be modernized. They are quite old. In general, the effectiveness should be improved. At the moment there are not even any interested fishermen who could come there to increase landings,” Shestakov says.

“As part of the president’s order on development of Dagestan we are preparing a program of development of the aquaculture of Dagestan, to show businesses which would like to work there places where it would be constructive to develop the industry. Our regional institute is developing the program at the moment,” Shestakov states. “Development of aquaculture is a necessary condition for development of fishing in Dagestan.”