OREANDA-NEWS. February 4, 2008. The 28th meeting of the interagency commission for water biological resources of the Caspian Sea was held in Ashkhabad  on January 29-31. The commission was established in 1992 to ensure the integrated approaches to fishery management in the Caspian Sea basin.

The regional forum brought together the heads of the fishery agencies and the scientific officers from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan chaired the commission in 2007-2008.

The main agenda item of the meeting, which demonstrated the member states’ endeavors to intensify co-operation established over the past years, was to define the allowable catch quota for sturgeon as well for 2008 taking account of the interests of each littoral country.

Noting the exceptional importance of preserving the biodiversity of the Caspian Sea the parties reaffirmed the need in conducting joint research to study the current condition of the marine biological resources and to assess the natural reserves of the unique water body. After discussing the plans of further co-operation and specifying the solutions to the existing problems the participants considered and adopted the decision to organize a working group responsible for designing the methods of distributing the amount of the allowed catch of valuable fish within the national catch quotas against seven criteria, which had been agreed at the 27th meeting in May 2007.

Welcoming the steps taken by the initiator of the recent meetings – Turkmenistan, which made an important contribution to preservation of the unique ecosystem of the Caspian Sea, the members of the commission expressed belief that this year’s meeting would be an effective step towards elaborating the universal model of co-operation in the interests of the littoral states.

The parties established the allowable catch quotas of the biological resources of the Caspian Sea for 2008 and adjusted a quota of each littoral state.