Oriented on making people closer

The third meeting of the Commission on conservation and rational use of water bioresources of the Caspian sea was held in Tehran. The gathering resulted in extension of the moratorium on industrial fishing of sturgeon species, Russian Federal Agency for fishing reports.

The meeting was attended by delegations from Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

The parties exchanged information on the development of the catch quota, reproduction and protection of aquatic bioresources, as well as reviewed the outcomes of research on the state of reserves and the results of the first joint meeting of the working groups on science and aquaculture.

During the meeting, recommendations were agreed on the volume of catch of aquatic bioresources for the coming year.

• The third session showed that not just colleagues, but like-minded people and friends gathered here: we all share a common goal - the preservation of the Caspian resources and their rational exploitation. In recent years, we have proved that the five Caspian states can find mutually acceptable solutions, said the head of the Russian delegation, summing up the meeting.

According to the species diversity of sturgeon and their number, the Caspian sea remains the most unique body of water in the world. The peak of sturgeon catch in the Caspian basin was in the XIX - early XX centuries. It amounted about 40-50 thousand tons. In the late 1970s, production estimated at 27.4 thousand tons. A sharp decline in the number of sturgeon has been observed since 1991.

The future of this valuable commercial fish depends directly on the productivity of the efforts of the countries of the Caspian coast to ensure natural and artificial reproduction, as well as to counteract poaching and illegal trade.

The extinction of sturgeon is also unacceptable from the point of view of science. It is proved that the "ancestors" of sturgeon lived tens of millions of years ago and were contemporaries of dinosaurs.

Conservation and protection of sturgeon species remains one of the priorities of the fishing policy of the Caspian countries, which since 2014 do not carry out industrial fishing of sturgeon.