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Exploitation of the Caspian Sea Bioresources (with Focus on Economics of Bioresources Utilization)

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The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

Part of the book series: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

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Abstract

Fishery and fishing industry are in decline in the Caspian. The reasons are mainly hidden in the long-term overexploitation of Caspian bioresources and in the poor control on illegal and unreported fishery in the region during the last two decades. Since the early 1990s, the illegal Caspian catches have largely exceeded the officially reported ones (nearly twofold on the average). The collapse of Caspian sturgeon and kilka stocks has made the fishery industry nonprofitable in all Caspian littoral states. Other important problems are also discussed in this paper giving for each Caspian country specifics.

With the presented problems in Caspian fishery, we trace fishing efforts (legal and poaching in the period 1990–2010) and costs and losses of the Caspian states and build scenarios of Caspian fish resources recovery. The resulted scenarios showed that certain measures need to be urgently implemented and continued for many years. The sustainable exploitation of Caspian bioresources requires improved enhancement programs (e.g., restocking with proper control on released fingerlings – their genetics and rate of survival) and, for at least 20–25 years, zero or minimal quotas for sturgeons catch aiming at scientific research and at provision of spawners to hatcheries only. In parallel, the fishery management systems need to be strengthened at national and regional level, in general, both in the development of innovative legal/institutional frameworks as well as in the enforcement of existing laws and policies. Rebuilding stocks of valuable Caspian bioresources will not be efficient without a strong national and international control on their exploitation, especially on illegal fishery. So far, the introduced official ban on sturgeon catch has been largely neglected in all Caspian states.

The proposed measures will ensure sustainable Caspian resources rent revenue in the future on the expenses of a foregone short-term and low current gains which inevitably lead to the extinction of valuable Caspian fish species.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For instance, in 2001 Iran has exported caviar for about 44 million USD.

  2. 2.

    According to expert estimates for Russian Federation, the illegal Caspian sturgeon catch is about 1000–2000 % higher than the official one [12 ].

  3. 3.

    Fishing effort is calculated as a total horsepower of fleet multiplied by the number of working days. For large vessels, the total horsepower is calculated as a total power of engines (from technical specifications). For large vessels (more than 500 HP), forty-day trip is taken as a base, with one month for docking and small repair every year and three months major repair every five years (total 295 days per year). For smaller vessels (less than 500 HP capacity), fifteen-day trips per month are taken as calculation basis with about two months repair every year (a total of 150 days per year). For motor boat teams, the calculation is based on 40 HP per one engine in average. Twenty-one-day trip is taken as a basis, resulting in 144 days of operations per year.

  4. 4.

    Prior 1990, the plant was the main industrial facility in the district and most of the adult population worked there (1300–1500 employees against ca. 10,000 population of the settlement).

  5. 5.

    In previous times they have reported up to 800 operating vessels, but presently the fleet could not have been sustained at this high level.

  6. 6.

    Kutum Rutilus kutum according to [6]

  7. 7.

    Names according to [6]: golden mullet Chelon auratus; leaping gray mullet Chelon saliens

  8. 8.

    According to expert estimation, the illegal catch in 2007 was 3354 tons; by interviews, illegal catch in 2007 equals 4898 tons, which is about 60 % of the total production stock.

  9. 9.

    Full text of the law: http://www.rg.ru/2004/12/23/rybolovstvo-dok.html

  10. 10.

    More comprehensive analysis of the law: FAO INVESTMENT CENTRE/EBRD COOPERATION PROGRAMME REPORT SERIES -N.12 – SEPTEMBER 2008 Russian Federation/Российская Федерация, Review of the Fishery Sector/Обзор рыбохозяйственного сектора.

  11. 11.

    See Statute of Federal Agency on Fishery, June 11, 2008.

  12. 12.

    Here and further Rusetskiy A. E., quotas on catch of marine living resources (in Russian), published in http://www.law.edu.ru/article/article.asp?articleID = 1,137,203

  13. 13.

    During the last years, fishermen reorganized from three shifts a day to one shift in haul fishing.

  14. 14.

    For haul fishing, a team of 10–11 people uses a motor boat (tapping boat or “metchik”) and electric winch to spread the large net (“tonya”) across the most of the fish passing canal and then collects the fish in one hour or so. For net fishing, a team of 8–12 people works in separate low horsepower motor boats, installing the nets and then collecting the catch.

  15. 15.

    Technical specifications for large vessel fleet were taken from http://fishportal.ru/ships/ships_49.html.

  16. 16.

    The government’s large fishing boats are on lease and are operated by individual owners. Owners have to submit their catch to the government processing plants.

  17. 17.

    Official data of the Caspian Fishery Inspection derived from interviews

  18. 18.

    It is in high demand of poultry and animal husbandries.

  19. 19.

    The point at which the level of fishing effort yields the maximum net natural rate of a bioresource is the maximum sustainable point. At this point, the fish catch is optimal or the so-called maximum sustainable yield (MSY).

  20. 20.

    CEDA 3.0 is a software package for analyzing catch, effort, and abundance index data, giving estimates of current and unexploited stock sizes, catchability, and associated population dynamics parameters. It also includes the facility to do projections of stock size into the future under various scenarios of catch or effort levels, so that different management strategies can be investigated.

Abbreviations

BFC:

Basin Fishery Council

CAB:

Commission of Aquatic Bioresources

CaspNIRKh:

Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution (Caspian Fishery Research Institute Astrakhan, Russian Federation, http://www.kaspnirh.ru/en/about/)

CEP:

Caspian Environmental Program

CITES:

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (https://www.cites.org/)

CPUE:

Catch per unit effort

FAF:

Federal Agency on Fisheries

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

HP:

Horsepower

IUCN:

International Union for Conservation of Nature

IUUC:

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated catch

MSY:

Maximum sustainable yield

RF:

Russian Federation

SE:

State enterprise

SoE:

State of the environment

SPC:

Caspian Scientific Production Council

TAC:

Total allowable catch

TDA:

Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis

TSFC:

Turkmenistan State Fisheries Committee

USD:

United States dollar

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The World Bank, 8504 Redwood Dr., Vienna, VA, 22180, USA

    Elena Strukova

  2. Environmental and local development consultancy, 1994 St. #19 Apt. 12, Ashgabat, 744000, Turkmenistan

    Oleg Guchgeldiyev

  3. The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC, 20433, USA

    Amy Evans

  4. CaspNIRKh, Savushkin str., 1, Astrakhan, 414056, Russian Federation

    Damir Katunin & Raisa Khodorevskaya

  5. Atyrau Branch of the Kazakh Scientific and Research Institute of Fisheries, ul. Bergalieva, 80, Atyrau, Kazakhstan

    Yulia Kim

  6. Azerbaijan Fisheries Research Institute, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Demirchizade str., 16, AZ, 1008, Baku, Azerbaijan

    Mekhman Akhundov, Tariyel Mammadli & Elchin Mammadov

  7. Iranian Fisheries organization, West Fatemy Avenue, No 250, 1413636331, Tehran, Iran

    Reza Shahivar

  8. State Committee of Fish Industry, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

    Orazmuhammet Muradov

  9. SuRDEP, 15 la Vue, Wierda Glen Estates, Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa

    Violeta Velikova

Authors
  1. Elena Strukova
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  2. Oleg Guchgeldiyev
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  3. Amy Evans
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  4. Damir Katunin
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  5. Raisa Khodorevskaya
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  6. Yulia Kim
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  7. Mekhman Akhundov
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  8. Tariyel Mammadli
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  9. Reza Shahivar
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  10. Orazmuhammet Muradov
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  11. Elchin Mammadov
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  12. Violeta Velikova
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Correspondence to Elena Strukova .

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Strukova, E. et al. (2016). Exploitation of the Caspian Sea Bioresources (with Focus on Economics of Bioresources Utilization). In: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2015_452

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2015_452

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