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Caspian littoral states to discuss sturgeon fishing moratorium

14 January 2010 12:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoriya Dementyeva â€“ APA. The Caspian littoral states will discuss in the end of January in Iran the question of introduction of the moratorium on sturgeon in the Caspian Sea. The chairman of Fishing Industry Committee, Yury Romashov, informed at the press conference in the Ministry of Agriculture, Kazakhstan Today agency reports.
Y. Romashov reminded that the initiative on introduction of the moratorium on sturgeon in the Caspian Sea was put forward by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in April, 2009 during the official visit of the President of Iran, Mahmud Ahmadinezhad, to Kazakhstan.
"We received an invitation from Iran to take part on January 25-27 in Teheran in the 31 session of the commission on water bioresources of the Caspian Sea."
As for the position of the other Caspian states on this issue, Y. Romashov said that Russia supports this offer and has unilaterally introduced moratorium on sturgeon, but has not decreased its actual catch.
"Iran refrained from the moratorium last summer."
Turkmenistan refrained from the moratorium. "They will, probably, support this idea, but it will be known at the commission session."
Azerbaijan suggests introducing moratorium stage by stage.
Russiaâ€™s quota in sturgeon fishing is 26 percent, Kazakhstanâ€™s is 20 percent, Iranâ€™s 44% and Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have 10 percent altogether.