Caspian Sea Countries and Environmental Damage

Aging Earth http://AgingEarth.com
More Aging Earth Headlines >> 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - Aging Earth Home
Caspian Sea Countries and Environmental Damage
Aug. 2007  - The countries around the 
Caspian Sea must adopt a common policy to clamp down on poaching and 
reduce environmental damage if they are protect sturgeon stocks, but 
effective cooperation is still a long way off, say analysts from 
NBCentralAsia, a network of journalists from across the region. 
Representatives from the Caspian states agreed to work out a new quota 
distribution system for sturgeon fishing during a regular meeting of the 
Commission on the Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea held on August 
11 in Ashgabat. 
Turkmenistan, Kazakstan, Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran all border the 
Caspian Sea, and catch various species of sturgeon for their flesh and 
caviar. Up to 90 percent of the world's black caviar comes from the 
Caspian region.

      Large sturgeons are becoming rare in the Caspian Sea.  
The current system, which excludes Iran, allots fishing quotas according 
to the contribution each state makes to replenishing stocks. Russia's 
quota is 70 percent, Kazakstan's is 18 percent and Turkmenistan and 
Azerbaijan have around six percent each. 
Iran's catch is not included in these percentages, although Iran is 
responsible for more than half the Caspian's caviar production, according 
to Mohammad Purkazemi, director of the International Sturgeon Research 
Institute of Iran.
The new system would involve Iran, too, and would incorporate added 
criteria such as the efforts each country puts into tackling poachers and 
limiting environmental damage to marine life and coastal areas. 
Iran called for reduction of sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea to 
protect the fish stocks, said Iranian Deputy Minister of Agriculture and 
head of the Fishery Organization Sha'ban-Ali Nezami, who was in Ashgabat 
for the meeting. Iran prefers raising sturgeon by aquaculture, he said. 
Even though the quota system is designed to preserve stocks, poachers 
still account for at least 70 percent of the total catch. 

 
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, says 
that large numbers of sturgeon are dying because of oil pollution from 
industry. 
NBCentralAsia experts say that the Caspian countries urgently need to 
adopt a strict common policy on poaching and environmental damage. But for 
this to work properly, they will need to resolve their long-running 
dispute over ownership of the sea. 
Rovshan Ibrahimov, the head of international relations at Qafqaz 
University in Baku, Azerbaijan, believes there should be tougher penalties 
for those who sell sturgeon flesh and caviar as well as for the poachers. 
Ibrahimov believes the new quota system must stress the responsibility 
each country has for nurturing the young fish, and must make provision for 
a possible moratorium on fishing to allow the population to regenerate. 
He warns that such measures will only work if they are accompanied by 
tough action stop poaching, "otherwise it will simply increase illegal 
fishing." 
The head of the Tabigat environmental group in Kazakstan, Mels Eleusizov, 
believes the quota system is only a half-measure which will not be enough 
to save the sturgeon. He would like to see rigorous steps taken to protect 
spawning areas. 
The chances of an oil spill have also been raised since Kazakstan joined 
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, increasing the number of oil 
tankers crossing the Caspian.


"Even a minor accident resulting in an oil spill in a closed-in area of 
water like the Caspian will be a major catastrophe for the sturgeon," said 
an NBCentralAsia observer in Ashgabat. 
Agreeing common regulations to protect the sturgeon will be a difficult 
task given that the unresolved question of where the maritime boundaries 
should lie in the Caspian. 
NBCentralAsia political analyst Eduard Poletaev said, "There will always 
be problems with one country accusing another of breaching some accord 
until there is joint responsibility and until a single inter-government 
organization is granted powers to deal with Caspian issues." 
The Commission on the Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea was 
established in 1992 on the initiative of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, 
Kazakhstan and Russia. In 2002, Iran joined the Commission. 
The Commission interacts with other international organizations, 
coordinates activities of member states on management, sustainable use and 
preservation of the Caspian biological resources, coordinates joint 
research and scientific cooperation, and acts to establish the order of 
defining of quotas for fishing sturgeon, sprat and seal.
Aging Earth
Aging Earth Home
AGING EARTH HOME