Azerbaijan proposes decade-long ban on Caspian Sea sturgeon fishing

Increasing the population of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea requires a
ban on their fishing for 10-12 years, Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology
and Natural Resources Guseyngulu Bagirov said at a press conference,
RIA Novosti reports.

He believes that the next round of talks on the issue will be held in Iran.
The ban on sturgeon fishing has been discussed since 1992.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in April 2009 that
Kazakhstan and Iran had offered the ban because illegal fishing may
lead to extinction of sturgeon in the sea.

Azerbaijani experts believe that the ban needs a mechanism for
efficient control mechanism, such as the one used in the soviet times
by the Sea Inspection for Regulation of Fishing, with their
headquarters in Baku.