Present of fish resources of the Small Aral sea (Kazakhstan)

Abstract

This work is an attempt to trace changes in the fish fauna, their food supply and fish catches in the Small Aral Sea from the beginning of 1990s to the present. The purpose of our work is a comparative study of changes in the fishery value of the water reservoir at different stages of its development, including during the last anthropogenic regression. Both literature data and those obtained by the authors in the period 1991–2015 were used. Not only data related to the fauna and fish catches proper, but also data on their food supply, represented mainly by invertebrates, were taken into account. The stabilization of the level of the Small Aral Sea, which followed the construction of the Kokaral dam, greatly changed the situation. The gradual decrease in the salinity of the water reservoir allowed the fish living in the Syr Darya to return to the sea. There are currently 16 species of fish in the sea that can be found in commercial catches.