The 8th meeting of the Commission on Conservation, Rational Use of Aquatic Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea and Management of their Joint Reserves was held in Astrakhan in a hybrid format. It was established as part of an agreement signed in 2014 following a meeting of the presidents of the Caspian Littoral states in Astrakhan.
Representatives of Rosrybolovstvo, the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service of Russia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography and its Volga-Caspian branch, heads of relevant departments of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan took part in the work of the commission.
Ilya Volynsky, Deputy Chairman of the Astrakhan Region Government, greeted the audience.
Reports on the results of fisheries management activities in 2023, on the work of the joint working group on science and aquaculture were presented at the meeting. The meeting participants agreed on joint releases of juvenile sturgeon species of fish during artificial reproduction, and joint sturgeon surveys. The volume of fishing of joint aquatic biological resources for 2025 has also been agreed.
Following the meeting, it was decided to extend the ban on commercial fishing of sturgeon species in 2025 and not to set export quotas for caviar and meat of sturgeon species for this period. Next year's catch, as before, will be carried out only for scientific research purposes and for artificial reproduction purposes.
The Russian side proposed to hold a Forum of Fishermen of the Caspian Littoral States in 2025, as well as to publish the annual bulletin of the Commission for the Conservation, Rational Use of Aquatic Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea and Management of their Joint Stocks and an anniversary collection of scientific articles on research of the Caspian Sea.