There is almost no sturgeon left in the Caspian Sea, the expert say

Almaty. January 26.  Silkroadnews – There is almost no big sturgeon left in the Caspian Sea, the head of department of Fisheries under the Territorial inspection of forestry and wildlife of the Mangistau region, Adil Shehmetov said, the Kazakhstani mass media reports.
“The Caspian Sea used to provide the global market with the sturgeon caviar, sturgeon and beluga. Now we do not have this fish in the Caspian Sea actually”, - said A.Shehmetov.
As it was explained, the expert made this statement after the Aktau Internet site published a video of the fishermen who caught a sturgeon of about 100kg weight. A.Shehmetov noted that in 1922, on the Volga River, the fishermen got beluga more than 100 years old. The fish weight made 250 kg. Ever after such cases were not recorded any more.  
“During the raids our inspectors remove poaching or abandoned cast nets, sometimes they catch fish of other species and of small size of 1.5 or 2.5 kilograms, but not beluga. I remember in the 80-s people living in the neighborhood go out to the beach after the severe storms and gathered the fish along the shore, and now you will hardly find a dead goby”, - he added.
According to the experts of the Volga-Caspian Territorial Administration department of fisheries of Astrakhan, earlier the length of the beluga in the sea reached more than 4m as average, with the weight of more than one ton. Now this fish is put on the endangered-species list. The illegal fishing give rise to criminal liability (in Russia) up to 5 years in prison.
“According to the Criminal Code, the illegal fishing and damage to the state worth about two million Tenge, poachers in the video could spend up to five years in prison”, A.Shehmetov also mentioned.
“In Mangistau 17 natural resource users are involved in fisheries on common fresh water fish. Every year they transfer their funds to restore the Caspian Sea natural resources, these money goes to the plant growing sturgeon in Atyrau. In 2015 only out of these funds the plant released more than 35 thousand fish juveniles into the natural habitat,”- the expert also said.