The presidential elections of Azerbaijan have already been held. Preliminary results will be known soon. The main problem the new leader of the country will face is the situation around the Caspian Sea. According to environmentalists, in a few years it threatens to become dead. Many factors contribute to this, among which, in particular, a disregard for the future in the name of the wealthy present. Five Caspian countries have not been able to divide the Caspian Sea and its wealth – oil and fish – for more than 10 years. And while politicians hold heated discussions, both – oil and fish – in the Caspian are becoming less and less. There is a real possibility that an ecological catastrophe will only end the disputes.
Zone of great interests The question of the division of the Caspian Sea arose after the collapse of the USSR. Before that, the Caspian Sea was owned by two states – the Soviet Union and Iran. The water border passed along the Astara line in Azerbaijan – Gasankuli in Turkmenistan. Iran had 12% of the Caspian Sea. Now the Islamic Republic refuses to recognize this line, stating that “the USSR simply dictated the conditions in the Caspian.” Officially, this line did not exist. Iran did not conclude any agreement with the USSR on the division of the Caspian Sea floor.
Now their rights to a relatively small, and even full of problems sea present 5 countries. The most reasonable solution seems to divide the water area so that everyone gets a piece of the sea, corresponding to the extent of the coastline. Nevertheless, Iran, in the person of Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, stated back in 2002 that he was ready to consider any proposals for the division of the sea, but his country’s share should not be less than 20%. By the way, the data on the extent of coastal lines of the Caspian states vary by approximately 200 kilometers in different sources. The specialist of the Institute of CIS countries Andrei Grozin explained the phenomenon of “floating borders” to the correspondent of “Rossiya”. According to him, the level of the Caspian is unstable. It constantly rises and falls, new islands appear, the outlines of the coastlines change. In addition, each state uses its own numbers – and there are no legislatively fixed borders on the Caspian.
Despite the fact that by all the rules we get the smallest piece of the Caspian pie, Russia, along with the most successful in this division, Kazakhstan and not so lucky Turkmenistan, most loudly prove the need for an early decision on the scheme “divide the bottom along the borders, the water is collective”. In Baku this idea is unpopular. Especially after the US company Exxon Mobil refused further oil prospecting off the Azerbaijani coast, alleging it with a lack of discovered reserves.
Curse of Resources Of course, the main objects of the division became the natural and energy resources of the sea, and not the territory. Namely – oil and sturgeon. Since October 1992, several multilateral meetings of the Caspian states have taken place, but the decision was never made.
Russia insists to resolve urgent issues related to the biosphere, nature use, fishing and shipping, without waiting for the solution of the main problem of determining the status of the Caspian Sea. Simply, meanwhile, the sea becomes a region of ecological disaster. The pollution of water with oil reaches huge proportions, the fish degenerates, and in general, according to Azerbaijani scientists, if not to take the necessary steps, then in two years the Caspian will become a dead sea. To resolve all these problems, Russia proposes to create an independent international body – the Center for Strategic Solutions to the Problems of the Caspian, which in time can turn into a political organization. The best situation in the region was determined by the special adviser of the US State Department on the Caspian Sea, Stephen Mann. He called the current situation “the curse of resources”. According to him, the availability of natural resources often creates the illusion of the possibility of using what is already available, instead of creating something new.
Colorful sea Participating in the international journalistic expedition to Azerbaijan “The Caspian: Partnership for the Future”, the correspondent of “Rossiya” saw with her own eyes how things are in one of the Caspian republics. In one of the most promising places for turism in Azerbaijan – Nabran – the sea is relatively clean. In Baku, where a part of the coast is entirely full of small rocking machines, the bottom is literally asphalted, and the surface of the water plays in the sun with all the colors of the rainbow, like puddles in a parking lot. How far is the eye in the sea – oil platforms. Just the same as on which Bruce Willis played golf in “Armageddon.” Not a single ship of Greenpeace is visible nearby. Journalists pinned fans to swim, that, now a match can not be brought close to them – they will blow up.
In the morning, gutted corpse of precious sturgeon was beaten to the beach of the bay adjacent to Baku. Poachers – hunters for caviar do not care about where to put unnecessary carcasses. All world analysts agree that first of all it is necessary to solve problems with pollution of the sea and poaching. So it is so, but as long as there is oil, people will think only about how to squeeze everything out of the ground as soon as possible. There is practically no work in the country. The whole industry, with the exception of the oil industry, is collapsed. What do the population remain to do, except to go out at night to the sea for caviar and fish? In this regard, the prospect of depleting the oil resources of the region (and they are not the richest) and the extinction of the sea seems daunting. The region will die out after the Caspian.
The Azerbaijani ecologist, the candidate of geographical sciences, the head of the cartography and geographical information department of ANAS (National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan) Ildyrym Mardanov told the expedition members that chemistry enters the Caspian Sea along the Volga, Araks and out of the sewers of more than 200 enterprises located on the coast. Also the most important problem of the sea is the invasion of the ctenophore-mnemiopsis. Ctenophora is a type of jellyfish that is brought to the Caspian with ballast water from Azov, which destroys plankton and fish eggs. As a result, the fish starves shortens its reproduction – and degeneration begins. The fight against a malicious jellyfish can only be implemented by instilling another ctenophora – beroa. It has already been successfully used to fight Mnemiopsis in the Black and Azov Seas. But it needs careful observation. Otherwise, by destroying Mnemiopsis, Beraud himself will begin to pose a threat to the sea. In the near future, hardly anyone will find the strength and money for that.
The future is questionable The fauna of the Caspian Sea has about 126 species of fish, including 7 varieties of sturgeon. Fish catching is permitted in strict accordance with quotas, which are signed by all 5 states annually. The number of fish allowed to catch is proportional to the number of fry that the state releases in the sea from the factories.
Sturgeon lives most of its hundred-year life in salt water and migrates to fresh water for spawning. In the forties of the 20th century, about 80% of the traditional breeding grounds for sturgeon disappeared. Dams were built there, the waters became dirty. To preserve the sturgeon stocks, the government of the former Soviet Union and Iran, in the 1950s, began construction of more than 20 fisheries with a total productive capacity of more than 100 million sturgeon fry per year. Of course, after the collapse of the USSR, all this collapsed. Today, only Iran maintains its production at the same level, and former Union countries have reduced productivity in general by more than 60%. Regarding to soil purification, Azerbaijan, for example, because of the high cost of reclamation of oil-polluted lands, proposes to lease these sites to private structures under conditions of their full purification. All this will take place under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecology. Especially great future for this program is for the tourism and cleaning of the coastal zone. Those who wish to build a hotel in a picturesque place will clean it up themselves, thus acquiring substantial discounts on owning land. The only question is whether there is such a willing person.
In short, the situation threatens to stand in a series of insoluble: those with which it seems like they are constantly struggling and every year new reports are published. But if you look closely – the numbers in these reports are always the same. And while big money will be circulating around the region, nothing will change. The next, 12th meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Caspian will be held in Tehran on December 9-10, 2003. Will wait. Sturgeon – the most ancient and precious fish living on the ground. And their caviar is one of the most expensive products in the world, and 90% of its production is concentrated on Caspian fisheries. This is one of the main sources of currency for the Caspian countries. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the monopoly on catching sturgeon gave way to a number of individuals and legal entities engaged in this profitable business. At the moment, attempts are continuing to assign all 7 species of Caspian sturgeon to the Convention on International Trade, which covers species of flora and fauna that are endangered.
Sturgeon feeds on small bottom animals. And because of water pollution these animals are dying out. At the mouth of the river Kura, the level of hydrocarbonates is 136 times higher than the norm, phenols – 10 times. Over the past 20 years, the level of oxygen in the sea at a depth of 100-200 m decreased by 40%. In the body of sturgeons caught by ecologists, a huge level of hydrocarbons, paraffin and some heavy metals was discovered. Pollution is considered the main cause of the epidemic of fish myopathy that erupted in the 1980s. Myopathy leads to muscle degeneration, which ultimately leads to infertility and death of animals. The length of coastal lines of the Caspian states is approximately equal to: Kazakhstan – 1894 km; Turkmenistan – 1,786 km; Azerbaijan – 800 km; Iran – 740 km; Russia – 695 km.