Azerbaijan ready to support a moratorium on sturgeon fishing

Azerbaijan is ready to support Russia's proposal to introduce a moratorium on sturgeon fishing, Tariel Mamedli, adviser to the Department for the Protection and Reproduction of Aquatic Bioresources of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, said on Saturday in an interview with RIA Novosti.

On Thursday, the head of the Russian State Fisheries Committee, Andrei Krainiy, proposed a five-year moratorium on sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea for all the Caspian littoral states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan). In Krainiy's view, the losses the Caspian basin countries would suffer from such a moratorium would be insignificant compared with the benefits they would gain in the future. The head of the State Fisheries Committee stressed that Russia is prepared to give up sturgeon fishing even for scientific purposes.

"He (Krainiy) said this on emotion. So far there is nothing official. If he officially submits this proposal to the Commission on Caspian Aquatic Bioresources of the littoral states, then we will consider it," Mamedli said.

"In principle we support this proposal, if it is submitted officially," he noted.

However, in the official's view, such unilateral initiatives usually lead to the opposite effect.

"Back in 1979, Azerbaijan officially banned the catch of one of the four sturgeon species, the ship sturgeon, and entered it in its Red Book. Not a single Caspian country has joined this ban yet. And in 2002 we stated that the beluga had to be saved, that it should be used not for commercial purposes but for reproduction and for scientific purposes. The first to lay into us then, literally with his fists, was Alexander Moiseev, then first deputy of the State Fisheries Committee, who was acting head of the agency. He raised a fuss at government level, saying why is Azerbaijan acting unilaterally, without us. And just last year, while proposing a 10-year moratorium on the sturgeon trade, Russia actually managed to increase its quota in the Commission on Caspian Aquatic Bioresources by 30 tonnes," Mamedli said.

Commenting on Russia's draft federal law "On the Trade in Sturgeon and Sturgeon Products", which provides for a state monopoly on sturgeon and caviar in their natural habitat, the expert said that "a state monopoly on fishing is not a fight against poaching". In his opinion, to optimise the issue, Russia needs to resolve the question of fisheries protection.

"On the Caspian, fisheries protection is handled by the Russian border troops, while in the rivers it is the State Fisheries Committee. The result is a certain patchwork that needs to be sorted out somehow," Mamedli said.

According to him, it is also necessary to increase the release of juveniles, engage in hatchery reproduction of fish, improve their natural spawning grounds and ensure that spawning fish can reach them.

"As far as I know, not a single little fish can get through the Volgograd dam to the spawning grounds, because they are all caught there," the department adviser stressed.

He believes that a moratorium can only be introduced after measures have been taken to increase fish stocks. In addition, in Mamedli's opinion, the moratorium should be introduced not for five years but for a longer period.

"All specialists may laugh at this (the introduction of a five-year moratorium). It should be for at least 10 years, since sturgeon mature in 8-12 years," the specialist said.

According to him, the uncertainty of the Caspian's legal status means that "each country sort of protects its ten-mile coastal zone, while the entire rest of the open sea is ownerless".

"Nobody knows what goes on there. In Soviet times there was a marine inspectorate based in Baku that monitored the entire sprat fleet, but now if you sail up to a vessel beyond the ten-mile zone, they say this is our flag, get out of here, and what they are catching there, sprat or sturgeon, nobody knows. In other words, it is impossible to protect stocks in an ownerless sea," Mamedli noted.

To determine the legal status of the sea, at the very least an interagency agreement on joint protection of fish stocks must be adopted, without which no moratorium will help the fight against poaching, he stressed.

Answering a question about the state of sturgeon protection in Azerbaijan, the expert said that last year the country adopted the law "On the Trade in Sturgeon", which provides for state control over the trade in sturgeon and caviar.

"Azerbaijan is the only Caspian country that, in the post-Soviet period, has built, with the help of the World Bank, a sturgeon hatchery with a capacity of 15 million fry per year in the settlement of Khilli in the country's Neftçala district. In addition, three hatcheries built in Soviet times were reconstructed," the ministry representative said, stressing that for all the hatcheries to operate at full capacity, spawning females are needed. "That is the problem for now," he noted.

Mamedli also said that Azerbaijan has "multi-layered protection" in place on the Caspian.

"Previously everything was controlled by the fisheries protection service; now the border troops, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and others are also involved. That is why not a single poaching vessel has been detained off Azerbaijan's shores over the past two and a half years. Azerbaijani poaching vessels are detained off the shores of Kazakhstan and Dagestan. They can't feel as free here as they used to, and they run far away," he added.

The ministry representative noted the importance of joint efforts by the Caspian states to combat poachers.

"The effectiveness of fisheries protection does not depend on Azerbaijan alone, since sturgeon are transboundary migrants. Today they are protected here, tomorrow they will be in Dagestan, the day after tomorrow in Kalmykia, and so on," the specialist said.

According to him, the overall situation with sturgeon in the Caspian is "too critical for certain species", for example the ship sturgeon, the stellate sturgeon and the beluga. "For the Russian sturgeon the situation is normal," Mamedli added.

He also said that Azerbaijan's sturgeon catch quota in the Caspian for the current year is 90 tonnes.