EcoLur
The National Academy of Sciences of Armenia shares EcoLur’s concern in regard with some problems of Lake Sevan. The official letter by NAS RA is sent to the Staff Head of the Armenian Government David Sargsyan and concerns to EcoLur’s application to the Armenian Government submitted on the findings of the public monitoring carried out in 40 littoral communities of Gegharkounik Region in 2012. “The problems EcoLur raised are factual and in general comply with the reality. Though there are issues, which need more professional comments, particularly in regard with assessing the population of the trout EcoLur highlights significant losses due to transportation of the young fish. Naturally there are always losses and their reduction is a technical problem, which can be solved through involving specialists from scientific institutions in this given process. Nevertheless, there are more serious problems as the state of spawning streams, unfavorable state of riverbeds, presence of hydrotechnical structures in the form of SHPs, uncontrollable stream flows, which hinder natural reproduction of adult trout. Institute of Hydroecology and Ichthyology of NAS RA has been beating alarm signals about these problems for several years. The presence of hydrotechnical structures of the spawning streams is already a violation of RA Law “On Fauna”. One of the main reasons of the loss of allotted funds and efforts on the recovery of trout population is the poaching of adult fish in the mouth of the river, which should be fought against at all levels, including self government bodies, the police, environmental inspection, NGOs etc.
The Institute of Hydroecology and Ichthyology of NAS RA frequently raises the issue about the need of a state fish farm. Nevertheless, the choice should be done only after consultations with scientists and specialists, who should give professional assessment...To ensure the strategic significance of Lake Sevan it’s necessary to recover not only endemic species, but also industrial reserves. Special attention should be paid to the issue of recovering the quality and purity of the water in the lake. Unfortunately, the process of ecosystem management often doesn’t take into consideration scientific substantiations and proposals, which result in the suffering for both the lake, and the people living in the littoral communities,” the letter says.
January 22, 2013 at 13:39