Current Status of the Fish Industry

2. Current Status of the Fish Industry

In the present economic environment the situation in the Dnipro Basin fish industry has significantly deteriorated. Production-related problems of fish enterprises mainly result from their low economic efficiency and lack of state financial support.

In Russia the available production facilities are underloaded, with the marketable fish output amounting 20% of the maximum potential output. Between 1990 and 2000 marketable fish production by fish enterprises was less than one-half its previous volume. However, it should be noted that the last few years have seen a slight trend towards production growth.

Under current economic conditions in Russia governmental organizations, fish enterprises, and amateur fishermen’s societies do not engage in the reproduction of fish resources of natural watercourses, or natural and artificial reservoirs that are not part of fish enterprises’ production base. While up until the mid eighties fish enterprises had annually released millions of young fish of the most valuable fish species into rivers, water reservoirs and general-purpose ponds, today they have discontinued this practice.

In the nineties the Belarus fish enterprises based in the Dnipro Basin reduced the volume of production of marketable pond fish and fish-breeding material and their harvests of lake and river fish by 1.5 to 3 times as compared to 1989 and 1990. To a large extent this had to do with inadequacies in the monetary and tax policies, increased prices for energy, feed, fertilizers, fish-breeding equipment, fishing gear, and transportation means, etc.

Byelorussian pond-fish farms based in the Dnipro Basin produce over 85% of Belarus total pond-fish output. Between 1997 and 2001 the average annual production output of marketable fish and fish-breeding material was 3.43 and 1.86 thou tons, respectively. Fish caught in the Dnipro Basin rivers, lakes and water reservoirs accounts for 66, 30 and 60% (respectively) of the total river and lake fish catches in the Republic. Over the aforesaid period the average annual harvest of lake and river fish reached 434 tons, of which more than 75% was caught in the Pripiat basin ponds and rivers. Whereas in the Pripiat River sub-basin lake fisheries play a predominant role accounting for 55% of the total fish yield, the Dnipro River sub-basin is noted for its river fisheries ( 74% of the total fish yield).

The largest share in the production of fish-pond and fish-breeding material (over 87%) is accounted for by carp. In river and lake fishing, there is a trend towards smaller catches of valuable commercial fish (of which 66% are accounted for by bream) and larger catches of small value fish, especially aurata and gold-fish, which account for 76%.

The bad economic situation in Ukraine has also affected the fish industry. Lack of working capital and increased prices for mineral fertilizers, mixed feed, fuel, etc. prevent the use of intensive fish-breeding technologies and industrial fish-breeding methods and are reducing fish yields of water reservoirs and ponds. Stocking the Dnipro Basin water reservoirs and cooling ponds of hydropower plants with fish has declined. For the majority of fisheries fish-breeding activities have become unprofitable. Their fish catches from their ponds have declined too. In 1999, the total volume of fish caught in natural ponds of the Ukrainian Dnipro Basin reached 12787 tons, with small-value species accounting for the largest share.

Prior to the construction of dams the stretches of the Dnipro River main stream and of its accessory bodies and watercourses that were subsequently flooded to form water reservoirs yielded on average 4647 tons of commercial fish per year, with bream, pike-perch and carp catches reaching 500-700 tons (or 10.8 to 15.1% of the total volume).

The damming of the Dnipro River has led to lower commercial fish yields. This downward trend for lower yields of the water reservoirs has persisted to this day. In 2000, fish yields were as low as 11.1 kg/ha (excluding sardelle) and 12.7 kg/ha (including sardelle). Put another way, fish yields dropped 4 times as compared to the pre-regulation period.

Pond fish-breeding in Ukraine’s inland ponds have also seen its marketable fish production levels decline. Thus, average fish yields of fish foraging ponds have dropped almost by half over the past few years.

Practically, no riparian country controls activities of fish farms in the environmental protection field or in terms of their impact on biodiversity. Even though fishponds have a noticeable impact on the hydrological regime of surface waters, the existing environmental laws regulate only the quality of fishpond water that enters surface watercourses, falling short of regulating the hydrological and hydrochemical regime of fishponds. In addition, there is no control over the condition of hydrobionts, accumulation of plant remains or silting processes. As a result, legal and physical owners of fishponds run them without any outside control and do not answer for damaging their ecological state and biodiversity.

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