SAVING THE FISH OF THE TSARS

In a few months time the countries washed by the Caspian may conclude an intergovernmental agreement on imposing a moratorium on sturgeon fishing. According to the Russian media, this issue is on the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of heads of the Caspian states, which is to take place in autumn this year.

Journalists have been told by the head of Russian Federal Fishing Agency, Andrey Krayniy, that this issue had already been raised repeatedly on the level of heads of state, but no final decision has yet been reached. According Krayniy, the imposition of a complete moratorium would mean that in just five years the sturgeon population could be restored to levels where the commercial fishing of this valuable species of fish could be started again.

Another important decision to be taken by the summit is that of upgrading the status of the fishing commission, which is at present an interdepartmental body whose decisions are more of informational nature than a binding one. If its status is elevated to that of an intergovernmental body, its decisions will become binding on the five Caspian countries [Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Turkmenistan]. There will be no right of veto either.

The department's chief adviser for the protection and supervision of bio-resources of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Azerbaijan's permanent representative on the commission for marine bio-resources of the Caspian Sea, Tariyel Mammadli, told Regionplus that the distribution of commercial quotas for sturgeon fishing was ceased at the 2010 Baku summit of Caspian heads of state, that is, a moratorium was actually imposed. At the same time, the commission for marine bio-resources of the Caspian Sea started to draw up an agreement on a complete moratorium. On the whole, the agreement is to reflect all aspects of the necessary measures to protect the sturgeon fish in the Caspian. This also applies to sturgeon fishing in the rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea, the on-going battle with poachers, pollution of the water with industrial waste, co-operation in restoring the fish populations and a number of other issues. According to Mammadli, it is already too late for the populations of Caspian sturgeon to be restored to a level allowing for commercial fishing. "This needed to be done 20 years ago, when uncontrolled fishing started after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The current measures are also beset with problems ensuing from the undefined legal status of the Caspian Sea. At best, the Caspian sturgeon can be saved as a biological species, just as an aquaculture," he said.

Quotas for fishing and the trade in sturgeon products were previously monitored in accordance with the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). At the present time, there are no quotas for commercial-scale sturgeon fishing.

The head of Baku State University's "Caspian" scientific research centre, Chingiz Izmaylov, believes that the greatest threat posed to the sturgeon is the large-scale poaching along the coast of the Russian regions of Dagestan, Kalmykia and Astrakhan Region. This large area of the Caspian coast is the sturgeon's main spawning grounds. The socio-economic situation in these areas is a complicated one and the well-being of part of the population there depends on fishing. In this situation, it is very difficult to combat poaching. People involved in illegal fishing have better equipment and more powerful boats than those monitoring them, who are called upon to protect the fish stocks," the expert said.

Cingiz Ismayilov notes that poaching is flourishing along Azerbaijan's coast too. The scale of poaching in Azerbaijan is, however, considerably less than in Russia. "If a complete ban comes into force, naturally we shall be able to improve the situation to a certain extent. But fish poaching is going on in all the countries along the Caspian shores. There are also other problems plaguing a sturgeon fish ban, such as the undefined status of the Capian Sea and demilitarisation. But the mother of all problems is that of poaching," he said.

Moreover, a number of issues directly affecting the protection of sturgeon stocks along the enormous coastal territory of the Russian Federation have not yet been tackled. For example, what will happen about sturgeon fishing round the Volgograd reservoir, where the sturgeon find it hard to get to the spawning-grounds, how many sturgeon are actually being caught and will the ban be extended to the rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea.

A member of the council of experts of the Save Caspian Sea Foundation, the former head of Kazakhstan's "greens", Serikzhan Mambetalin, has told Regionplus that the sturgeon swim up the Volga, Ural and Kura rivers to spawn. "These ancient fish that were around at the time of the dinosaurs have a unique genetic memory of their migration routes. So, even the sturgeon in the Iranian sector may swim up the rivers flowing into the northern Caspian Sea," the expert said.

In the upper reaches of the Volga the flow is regulated by a cascade of canals, reservoirs and hydropower stations, which restrict the sturgeon's habitat. Fifty years ago, for example, sturgeon were caught around the Volga city of Kazan. Other negative factors affecting the sturgeon are the increasing shallowness of the rivers, the decrease in the water levels, the silting up of the riverbed and the releases of industrial, even toxic, wastes into the river. "All this affects the sturgeon population, so a comprehensive programme needs to be drawn up, including dredging the rivers to make them deeper and restrictions on the release of effluents into the rivers," Serikzhan Mambetalin said.

As regards the actual numbers of sturgeon being caught, he noted that in 1983 the Soviet Union only exported 18,000 tonnes of sturgeon, and 2,500 tonnes of black caviar. In the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the population of sturgeon has fallen 20-fold, so the true figure is problably closer to 1,000 tonnes.

Mambetalin thinks that besides the Caspian states exercising their political will, the operations of the departments of all the Caspian countries without exception need to be co-ordinated if there is to be a complete crack-down on poaching. "Our countries are trying to combat poaching individually, although this is impossible without co-operation with the other Caspian countries. Joint patrolling of the Caspian Sea's waters, exchanging information, including satellite pictures, regular joint raids by the coastguard and setting up a joint system of monitoring the waters of the Caspian can help substantially in combating illegal fishing," he said.

In his opinion, a ban on its own will not allow the sturgeon to regenerate. Mambetalin stated that the factors resulting in the decline of the sturgeon population vary, but they are almost all anthropogenic, that is, caused by human activity.

Although the sea has the potential for species to reproduce, the sturgeon will only make a come-back if the Caspian is left alone for 5-10 years. As it was a natural habitat for 90 per cent of all the sturgeon, the North Caspian enjoyed the status of a protected zone during the Soviet years. Commercial fishing was very restricted, seasonal and there were strict fishing quotas. Unfortunately, in the 1990s, Kazakhstan and then Russia permitted exploration for and extraction of oil and gas there. So, the current status of the sea as a protected zone is in fact no longer respected, since seismological probes are being carried out, with explosions conducted on the seabed, commercial vessels sailing through the spawning-grounds and off-shore oil deposits are supplying a network of oil pipelines on land. It should be made quite clear that sturgeon reproduction and oil extraction are not compatible," the expert thinks.

Mambetalin notes that, to all appearances, fishing is to be banned both in the sea and in the rivers, including the Volga. But a ban in itself will not solve the problem. "Only a comprehensive solution, including a moratorium not only on fishing, but also on oil exploration and extraction in the Northern Caspian for a period of at least five years can restore the sturgeon population. Otherwise, we are simply depriving the fishermen of their income in Caspian areas, but giving the oilmen the opportunity to kill the fish of the tsars," he said.