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Каспинфо август 2003 |
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Название: ПРОБЛЕМЫ СОХРАНЕНИЯ ОСЕТРОВЫХ (на англ. яз.) Главные Пункты: * По мнению независимых экологов, искусственное рыборазведение не может решить проблему сохранения осетровых на Каспии. * Старейшая природоохранная организация США, Wildlife Conservation Society, начала проект в Казахстане по мониторингу осетровых. Их попытка аналогичного сотрудничества с астраханскими учеными не увенчалась успехом. (11.08.2003) Полный Текст ПРОБЛЕМЫ СОХРАНЕНИЯ ОСЕТРОВЫХ (на англ. яз.) ПРОБЛЕМЫ СОХРАНЕНИЯ ОСЕТРОВЫХ (на англ. яз.) *** 'Mutant fish' fear for Caspian caviar Nick Paton Walsh in Nardaran Sunday August 10, 2003 The Observer Hagi puts two fingers beneath the gills of the huge Beluga sturgeon he fished from the Azerbaijani shores of the Caspian Sea hours earlier and grins, lifting it shoulder high. It is a rare and profitable catch these days, its belly brimming with top-quality Beluga caviar worth a black market fortune. Constant fishing has crippled the Caspian's sturgeon stocks to the point that Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan declared a moratorium on fishing in July 2001. But stocks had shrunk already by 90 per cent in 20 years. 'I've worked here for 25 years,' said Hagi, 'and we used to get about 200 kilos of caviar from the sea in May [the prime fishing month]. But now it's about 20 kilos.' In an attempt to prevent the fish disappearing, the Azerbaijani government is to open a factory on the Caspian coast on 1 September, which will artificially develop fish for release into the sea. While the Azerbaijani Ecology Ministry says the project will send up to 15 million small fish into the sea annually, some scientists say the fish die within a year and do not reproduce. They are often cross-breeds of different species that do not occur naturally. The release of these 'mutant fish' will permanently damage the sea's delicate eco-system, they say. 'Artificial fish cannot survive in nature,' said Azer Garaev, president of the Azerbaijani Society for the Protection of Animals. He added that in a natural environment fish travel downstream to the sea over a six-month period, ensuring they are then fully grown and adjusted to salty water. 'They cannot organise the same conditions in the plant so the fish do not survive,' he said. 'According to official estimates, 20 to 30 per cent die, but I think it is nearer 40 to 50 per cent. Scientists have predicted that by 2070 the sturgeon population will no longer exist.' The government says the $24.5m project, mostly funded by a World Bank loan, will save the sturgeon. For people like Hagi, the black market in caviar is the only means he has to survive. The government maintains that a crackdown is in effect, but Hagi said there were ways around the police. 'You have to give the police money, and then they go. A big boss needs a lot of money, a little boss a little money.' The caviar export trade is run exclusively by Caspian Fish, a private enterprise linked to President Haydar Aliev's son, Ilham, who last week became acting President as his father is ill. The fish factory will ensure this business continues to thrive regardless of the ecological consequences, critics say. It is a hugely profitable trade. A kilo retails at ?1,800 in London, but costs just ?60 from Hagi's personal stocks. http://www.guardian.co.uk/fish/story/0,7369,1015874,00.html *** Sturgeon Tagged To Resolve Caviar Dispute Deutsche Presse-Agentur, July 22, 2003 Atyrau, Kazakhstan -- For more than a decade, the post-Soviet countries bordering the Caspian Sea resisted meddling by conservationist groups concerned about massive overfishing of beluga sturgeon, the fish that produces black caviar. The region boasts the world's last major population of the fish. Last week, Kazakhstan broke ranks and welcomed the largest of the conservation groups, whose leader had encountered closed doors on a trip to Astrakhan, Russia's caviar capital, last year. Under the approving gaze of local officials, two scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) tagged 231 baby beluga sturgeon in an attempt to solve one of the Caspian's thorniest questions: Which fish belong to each of the five countries that share the world's largest inland sea - Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan. "We want to know where our fish go," said Adilgeri Kairalapov, director of a hatchery on the Ural River that releases more than a million baby beluga into the sea annually. When the tagged fish return to spawn in the Ural in 15 years and are caught, the tags will disclose the date of their release and allow an estimated survival rate. Kazakhstan, whose Ural river is the only spawning ground for the beluga, can then press its neighbours for a bigger share of the lucrative export. Kazakhstan exports about six tons of beluga caviar annually. Russia's quota, based on the contribution of its own hatcheries, exports less than two tons. Iran exports nearly three tons of caviar. However, Kazakhstan and Russia claim that those exports are beluga born in their hatcheries. Beluga caviar retails in the West for 3,000 U.S. dollars per kilo, making it the world's most valuable wildlife commodity. For the WCS, the tagging operation is the start of a comprehensive monitoring programme to provide an accurate picture of the sturgeon stocks left in the Caspian. The data, says the senior scientist on the project, Dr. Ellen Pikitch, WCS director of Ocean Strategy, will help counter "wildly exaggerated Russian and western claims" about the estimated current beluga population. These claims are used by Russia to oppose demands for a moratorium on beluga fishing. Pikitch, who is also chairwoman of the World Conservation Union's stock assessment group, helped found Caviar Emptor to alert consumers to the dwindling beluga stocks. The group is essentially a coalition of WCS, Seaweb and the Natural Resources Defence Council. Caviar Emptor also petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put beluga on the endangered species list. Such a move would ban exports to the United States, the world's largest importer. When Pikitch travelled to Astrakhan last October, Mark Karpiuk, head of the Caspian Fisheries Research Institute prevented her from meeting fisheries and hatcheries experts. Caviar Emptor was supporting a moratorium on beluga fishing, sources in Astrakhan said then. But this year, Kazakhstan's authorities took the first step towards a long-term research project with WCS. After emptying a box of tagged fish into the Caspian Sea at the mouth of the Ural River last week, Pikitich said, "I'm really thrilled the Kazakhs seem ready to move to save this magnificent fish. I just hope it's not too late." |