YEREVAN, December 17, /ARKA/. The commercial population of whitefish in Armenia’s largest Lake  Sevan has increased by 30% in late October 2018 when compared to the same time span of 2017, Bardukh Gabrielyan, the director of Zoology and Hydroecology Research Center, an affiliation of the National Academy of Sciences, told a news conference today.

He said the commercial whitefish population increased from 540 tons to 740 tons. In his words, whitefish is the most important commercial fish in Armenia, and the recorded growth is very important. He said the total population of whitefish in Armenia is about 2.9 thousand tons, but it is not sufficient to allow unlimited fishing.

He said in a couple of days whitefish spawning season begins, and it is extremely important to prevent illegal fishing throughout that period. 

‘Unfortunately, the local market is already overfilled not only with whitefish, but also with whitefish caviar. The uncontrolled catch can seriously affect the population and result in a significant drop," said Gabrielyan.

Gabrielyan added also that the uncontrolled catching of fish and crayfish this year has already had a detrimental effect not only on the country's hydro resources, but also on the ecosystem. According to him, in 2017 the population of commercial trout was 17 tons, but as a result of uncontrolled catching this year it has dwindled to 1-2 tons.

He said the export of Sevan trout this year has been great and all the work the center did last year to increase the population of this species was in vain. He said also that in 2017, the crayfish population was 2,600 tons, but due to uncontrolled catching this year, it has decreased to 2,300 tons. In 2016, the commercial crayfish population was about 4,900 tons.  -0-