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  • Trout Fishing In Armenia

    TROUT FISHING IN ARMENIA

    Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
    IWPR Caucasus Reporting #733
    April 29 2014

    Environmentalists see commercial fish farms as latest threat to
    Lake Sevan.

    By Lilit Arakelyan - Caucasus CRS Issue 733,

    Environmentalists in Armenia are alarmed at plans to introduce fish
    farming in Lake Sevan, the region's biggest freshwater resource. They
    say the industrial feeding process could cause pollution.

    In February, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan said fish farming was
    a government priority because it would create jobs and income.

    For Lake Sevan, the plan is to breed large numbers of the endemic
    species of lake, using artificial food rich in phosphorus and
    nitrogen. There could be nearly 80 fish farms around the lake within
    the next ten years. The project's backers say it will create 5,000
    to 6,000 jobs and boost exports.

    A dozen environmental groups have written to the president asking
    him to block the plans, although that seems unlikely to happen.

    Armen Yeganyan, head of the industrial policy department at the economy
    ministry, told IWPR that the farmed trout would go to Russia, Ukraine,
    Kazakstan and Georgia.

    According to Yeganyan, fish enclosures will occupy just 0.03 per
    cent of the lake - "one-fiftieth of the international standard". In
    addition, he said, the density of eight kilogrammes of fish per cubic
    metre of water was "five times less than the average for caged or
    netted fish farms".

    Green activists like Liana Asoyan of the Aarhus Centre dispute the
    claim that the impact of commercial fish farming can be contained
    so easily.

    "They intend to make money at the cost of water purity, even though
    this lake is our reservoir of clean drinking water," Asoyan told IWPR.

    "If they go through with this programme, we'll end up with a waste
    dump full of fish. The water in Lake Sevan will be good for nothing
    after it's had so much artificial feed poured into it," she said.

    In recent years, environmentalists have raised concerns about
    successive government programmes, warning of pollution from mining
    projects, water supplies blocked behind hydroelectric dams, and
    increased volumes being drawn off for irrigation. (See Setback for
    Lake Sevan and Greens Take On Hydro-Schemes.)

    The latest plan potentially contravenes a law passed in 2001 to
    preserve Armenia's largest lake.

    Gagik Tadevosyan, a former member of parliament who helped draft the
    law, argues that it is illegal to engage in any kind of commercial
    activity that could harm the ecosystem. In the case of fish farming,
    he said, "The fish won't be able to totally absorb all of the nitrogen
    and phosphorus feed that will be poured into the lake. The remains
    of the feed will sink to the bottom of the lake and form a layer of
    chemical waste that will rot and stagnate. The organic elements will
    then enter the water."

    Artashes Ziroyan, head of the environment ministry's bioresources
    agency, denied that feeding methods would lead to pollution.

    "They will use European, ecologically pure kinds of feed, and these
    will not just be dumped into the lake, but added gradually. I am sure
    that 98 percent of the feed will be consumed," he said.

    Ziroyan argued that commercial fish breeding would have a positive
    effect on the lake's eco-balance since wild stocks of Sevan trout
    were currently badly depleted, but would be replenished as part of
    the new scheme. The commercial fish farms would release between five
    and ten per cent of their stocks into the wild each year.

    He said a final environmental assessment was now being carried out,
    and if this was positive, fish farming would start this year.

    The government intends to create a Sevan Protection Fund, built
    up from a percentage of the revenues from sales of farmed fish and
    expected to hit nearly 60 million dollars within a decade.

    Inga Zarafyan, head of the Ecolur group, believes the economic
    assumptions behind government projections are questionable.

    "It isn't clear whether they'll have so many fish, or whether prices
    will change," she said. "There's a high possibility that in such a
    large project, fish will start dying, diseases will spread among them,
    and medication will need to be bought."

    Lilit Arakelyan works for Araratnews.am in Armenia.

    http://iwpr.net/report-news/trout-fishing-armenia


    From: Baghdasarian
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