Moratorium on the Caspian seal commercial hunting
@ 2018 Sokolskiy A. F., the Astrakhan Branch of Pan-Russian Nature Conservation Society, Astrakhan State University of Civil Engineering.
In the monograph “Ecological problems of amateur and illegal fishing in the Volga-Caspian fishing region”, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Astrakhan Branch of Pan-Russian Nature Conservation Society (AB PRNCS), Sokolskiy Arkadiy Fedorovich, the Chairman of AB PRNCS, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, the Honorary Fishery Worker of the Russian Federation, managing the laboratory of non-fish objects in CaspNIRKh from 1980 to 2006, describes the main environmental problems of amateur and illegal fishing, challenges for conservation of bioresources, and suggests ways to overcome them.
In Chapter 7 (Moratorium on the Caspian Seal Commercial Hunting, р. 73-77), the well-known scientist summarises the results of long-term studies of this endemic marine mammal, and convincing data (the reduction of the Caspian seal abundance, the growth of barrenness, etc.), which proves necessity to protect the Caspian seal population, impose a moratorium on its commercial hunting. Sokolskiy A.F. proposes to give a protected status for the areas of mass seal breeding in the Northern Caspian, in particular, for squares 220-221, 258-259, 260-262, and 300-301, suggests other measures for the conservation of the only marine mammal in the Caspian.
To download A.F. Sokolskiy’s monograph (chapter 7, p. 73-77): SokolskiyA.F. Ecological problems of illegal fishing