Scientists of the subsidiary of «National agrarian science and educational center» JSC - «Fisheries Research and Production Center» LLP during online consultation told about the issues of protection, reproduction and use of fish stocks in Lake Balkash. The speaker was Erkynbek Yerikovich Kumatayev, director of the Balkhash branch of "FRPC" LLP.  

    Lake Balkash is a real oasis in the vast desert lands of Kazakhstan. The lake is a relict reservoir formed by nature many centuries ago. Modern problems of Balkash inherited us as a result of ill-conceived irrigation policy projects.

The most important bioecological problems of Lake Balkash include the state of fish stocks of the reservoir.

These problems can be divided into three main areas:

- reproduction of fish stocks

- protection of fish stocks

- rational use of fish resources.

    Reproduction of fish stocks, in turn, is divided into natural and artificial reproduction.

Natural reproduction depends on many factors, but the main one is the hydrological regime of the lake. Over the past 40 years, the lowest annual water level in the lake Balkash was observed in 1986-1987 during the filling of the Kapshagai reservoir. At present, the hydrological regime of the Balkash is favorable for the effective natural reproduction of most commercial fish species.

    In addition, nature users, as compensation for the use of natural resources, annually carry out artificial stocking of the reservoir with fish planting material - mainly carp and grass carp, less often silver carp.

    If there is a long-term high water supply (from 2002 to the present), the fish stocks of the lake are still able to be replenished due to natural reproduction. But with the onset of the dry period, the efficiency of natural reproduction will steadily fall, and, consequently, the number of commercial fish species will decrease. At this time, it will be necessary to increase the artificial stocking of valuable fish species with fish seed. Otherwise, the same picture will be repeated on Balkhash, which was observed in the mid-80s - early 90s of the last century, when carp catches fell to a critical minimum (10-50 tons per year). If emergency measures were not taken to preserve the species (a one-year complete ban, an increase in the fishing measure),  Lake Balkhash could have lost a carp as part of its commercial fish fauna.

    In order to increase the fish productivity of the lake, the necessary production capacity of the reproductive fish-breeding complex is needed. Unfortunately, for more than 30 years we have been talking about the need to build at least one fish hatchery on the shores of the lake. Balkash. For example, we have calculated that to increase carp catches to 1.75 thousand tons (due to a more complete use of the fish feed base), about 9.0 million pieces will be required underyearlings of this species. In the meantime, given the existing natural reproduction of carp and the level of stocking, the maximum allowable catch of carp in recent years does not exceed 500-600 tons.

    The second important problem is the protection of fish stocks. The existing scheme for the protection of fish stocks is not effective enough. It is based on the protection of assigned areas by the users themselves under the control of regional territorial inspections, and reserve areas and areas prohibited for fishing by state inspections; the reserve fund of fishery reservoirs of local importance - by departments of local executive bodies, reservoirs of reserves - by nature protection institutions of the reserves themselves.

    The principle of administrative division (by administrative regions) does not fully meet the objectives of the development of fisheries. Thus, the waters of such large bodies of water as the Caspian Sea, lakes Balkash, Sasykkol, Alakol territorially belong to several regions at once. The territorial inspectorates and local executive bodies of several regions manage the uniform fish stocks of each of these reservoirs, which do not contribute to rational management and protection. There are 8 fishery basins on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, so it would be more logical and expedient to restore the previously existing basin principle of fish resources protection.

    And finally the third problem is the rational use of fish resources. In 2015-2017 LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center», including the Balkhash branch, carried out the project "Assessment of the state of fish resources in the main fishing water bodies of Kazakhstan to develop a strategy for careful management of stocks and ensure sustainble fishing". As a result of the project, the boundary benchmarks (standarts) of fishing were developed in relation to the critical water content for fish stocks, the critical biomass of the commercial stock for each of the reservoirs of international and republican significance, and also management solutions differentiated by water bodies were proposed when the boundary benchmarks were reached. The introduction of the developed standards will allow integrating the fundamental principles of fisheries management recommended by the FAO Code of Conduct for responsible Fisheries.   

    These standards served as the beginning for reforming the principles of protection and use of fish stocks. In particular, the Law dated of June 15, 2017 No. 73-VI of the Republic of Kazakhstan introduced the term "fishing effort", which involves the development of standards for the permissible number of tools, fishing equipment and fishermen, not only for the reservoir as a whole, but in the context of the fixed fishery areas of the reservoir. There were no similar developments in Kazakhstan before.

    Therefore, the practical implementation of the principles of careful management of stocks requires detailed elaboration and implementation of a number of mechanisms, including the optimization of the placement of fishing efforts in each fishery region, the introduction of resource-saving fishing, new fishing gear, etc.

    Fishing is the most important factor in determining the state of fish stocks. Fisheries can be regulated not only by limits, bans on fishing in water bodies / areas, restrictions on individual fishing gear and in different periods of the year, but also by introducing new fishing gear, resource-saving fishing schemes, and by regulating the mesh size in fishing gear.

    Since 2010, fisheries science has developed and made a number of recommendations and proposals, which are reflected in the restrictions and prohibitions, as well as fishing rules. In particular, according to our recommendation, since 2012, a complete ban on commercial fishing in the Ile river, and the period of the spring spawning ban for the whole Ile-Balkhash basin has been increased from 30 to 45 days. Also, fishing measures for carp and pike perch have been increased and approved.

    This year, the scientific staff of the LLP «Fisheries Research and Production Center» developed a Recommendation on the standarts of fishing effort in the water bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan.