Degree of Master of

Assessment of the AALS current fisheries trends: 2000-2009

Currently, commercial catch in the Aydar-Arnasay lakes is basically represented by three main species, carp, pikeperch, and roach. Such species as dream, asp, phytophagous fish species, and catfish are not found in the catches. According to the Ministry of Fisheries, Aydar-Arnasay lakes provided 51.4% catches in 1987 of the total amount of produced fish in Uzbekistan, 56.7% - 1988, 75.1% - 2002, 73.5% - 2003, and 41.6% - 2005 (Kurbanov and
Primov 2006).

CEU eTD Collection
According to the FAO Fisheries Technical paper (2004), by today the fish production in the Aydar-Arnasay lake system has decreased to one fifth in comparison with 1987, i.e. from 3667 tons in 1987 to 759 tons in 2005. Along with reduction of fish production, all fisheries have been privatized. Privatization has caused the decline of the formerly well-developed fisheries and management structures ((FAO) 2004). Coordination between fisheries institutions that are responsible for maintaining sustainable fish yield in these lakes has been undermined. Linkages between the irrigation and fisheries institutions have been lost as well.

2008
¹⁵ The graph has been created by the author using data adopted from Ecological Herald of Uzbekistan,

Support of the fisheries by the government is minimal. Education and training of specialists has also stopped, and the research network has come to an almost complete standstill (Kamilov and Karimov 1994).
Today, Uzbekistan has no national programs or specific fishery development projects supported by the government or international assistance. Private initiative focuses only on exploitation of rich fish stocks in the Aydar-Arnasay lake system using small fishing teams. In other words, the situation described above has resulted in deterioration of the fish industry fisheries in the Aydar-Arnasay lakes as well as in whole Uzbekistan. Depletion of fish production, lack of measures directed at maintenance and development of fisheries and absence of the determinate policy in the fish industry are remarkable characteristics of the contemporary condition of the fish industry in the republic (Thorpe and van Anrooy 2009).
Depletion of fish production in the Aydar-Arnasay lakes from the perspective of species variety and amount of fish is observed. Based on analysis of the article “Development of the capture fisheries and aquaculture in Uzbekistan” dedicated to Aquaculture and capture fisheries development policy and strategy of Uzbekistan and published in the special issue of the “Ecological Gerald of Uzbekistan” the author was trying to generalize the main causes of fish supply reduction in the Aydar-Arnasay lakes. According to the analysis conducted, they are:

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  Lack of stocking with fish;
  
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  Overexploitation and unreasonable use of fish resources; fish capture exceeds the natural reproduction;
  
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  Lack of monitoring and effective measures pointed at the maintenance and development of fisheries;
  
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  CEU eTD Collection
  Lack of scientific justification, i.e. in the process of fish catch, farmers do not take into consideration data about the current conditions of fish supply on their rented plots;
  
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  Weak resource-and-technical base, particularly, there are no methodological recommendations regarding the fish capture level, reproduction rates and other important characteristics;
  
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  Lack of government financial support and any kind of its participation in fisheries development (Karimov 2008).
  

Examination of other important article regarding fisheries in Uzbekistan, i.e. “Inland fisheries livelihoods in Central Asia: Policy interventions and opportunities” additional important reasons related to the deterioration of fisheries have been found, namely:

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  increase in cost price of commercial fish causes an increase of concealed fish produced in the Arnasay lakes; amount of fish captured is not registered anywhere and taxes are not paid;
  
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  the problem of stocking with fish species such as carp, catfish, pikeperch, bream, and asp is not solved; there is no opportunity for farmers to realize fish stocking due to lack of finances and absence of breeding stock in Uzbekistan. Lack of breeding stock primarily relates to the fact that breeding stock propagation was not developed on these lakes last ten years;
  
• 
  initiation of fish farm enterprises gives rise to the additional problems related to provision of breeding stock because re-created fish farms will not be able to deal with breeding stock propagation by themselves followed by fish stocking of their plots; the main causes of that are as follows:
  

1. 
   underdeveloped resource base of fish farms;
   
2. 
   lack of scientific base and experts involved in breeding stock propagation;
   
3. 
   expenses on breeding stock propagation will be not paid off for a few years;
   
4. 
   fish stocking will be conducted spontaneously with various fish species and probably with low-quality breeding stock (Thorpe and van Anrooy 2009).
   

Finally, having examined results of contemporary scientific investigations (Shamsiev and Chembarisov 2007); ((FAO) 2004); (Kamilov and Karimov 1994), the author has revealed some environmental reasons of depletion of fish resources. The major reasons are:

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  an increase of mineralization in the lakes;
  
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  the unsteady water level of the lakes;
  
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  spontaneous development of fish fauna resulting in unstable and low reproduction;
  
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  absence of natural reproduction of several commercial fish species, such as silver carp and grass carp, and undeveloped benthos being the main feed stuff for benthos eaters.
  

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