World Fish Migration Day in the Kyrgyz Republic: Save Issyk-Kul and the fish of Kyrgyzstan!

June 6, 2022

#CCE

On May 17, the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and the Environmental Sustainability and Climate Science Department organized an event dedicated to the World Fish Migration Day (the date is May 21). Such a holiday was not celebrated earlier in Kyrgyzstan; for the first time, an event was dedicated to it this year at AUCA.

The date is really important: c is intended to remind people on the planet that water bodies are not only sources of water for humans, but also a home for fish, about the value of aquatic ecosystems, about the importance of preserving the population of river and marine fish, about how pollution waters and unsustainable human actions threaten the existence of marine and river inhabitants, their migration and biodiversity. As a result, both the health and the lives of the people themselves on the planet.

The event at AUCA brought together scientists, researchers, media representatives, professors and students not only from AUCA, but also from other metropolitan universities.

One of the key speakers of the event was Joshua Royte, senior researcher at The Nature Conservancy (Maine, USA), which aims to restore ecosystems on the planet in a way that benefits both people and nature. Working on the issues of preserving fresh water, healthy rivers and fish populations in his home state for the past 12 years, Joshua initiated this global event – the World Fish Migration Day.

He told about the situation in the whole world: dams, large hydroelectric power plants, water pipes that violate the habitat of fish, they cannot migrate, including for reproduction, pose a serious threat to the environment. The result is that fish populations are decreasing, some fish species have disappeared altogether. And a lot of such local problems in various parts of the world are becoming a global environmental crisis. So, since 1970, we have lost 94% of freshwater megafish populations! But there is also good news: environmentalists know what to do – remove barriers for fish. For example, dismantle dams, as they are doing now in the USA.

In Kyrgyzstan, the biodiversity of the ichthyofauna of the republic's water bodies is also being studied, and recommendations are being developed for their conservation and rational use. Shaigul Asylbayeva, head of the laboratory of ichthyology and hydrobiology of the Institute of Biology of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the Kyrgyz Republic, said that the employees of their institute have developed methods for restoring the population of endemic fish species of Issyk-Kul and Son-Kul lakes, among them - Issyk-Kul chebachok and trout, naked osman and marinka. Now, according to the recommendations of scientists, work is being carried out at biostations in the years. Cholpon-Ata and Karakol, as well as in the Talas region.

The consultant of the Department of Fisheries of the Kyrgyz Republic, Chynara Imankulova, also told about how their department monitors the state of fish stocks in lakes and rivers of Kyrgyzstan, and also conducts ichthyological studies of Issyk-Kul and Son-Kul lakes, the country's reservoirs, and cleans them from poaching nets.

The event was moderated by CCE Executive Director Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva. Thanks to her and the speakers, the event was held in the form of a dialogue, questions and answers. It was nice to see that active young people gathered in the hall, who asked the speakers questions on the topic of their speeches, offered their ideas and options for solving environmental problems.

All those present were especially impressed by Tamara Kubayeva’s documentary film “At the Bottom” – about the volunteer work of divers who, on their own initiative, several times a year over the past few years, descend to the bottom of Issyk-Kul to clean it from debris after vacationers and local residents. These people simply could not pass (or swim?) past the environmental disaster they saw in our beautiful pearl. And every year they clean the lake from a mass of plastic, glass, from poaching nets, etc. And, as volunteers say, garbage and nets, unfortunately, are not getting smaller - only more ...

In the film, you can see one day in the life of divers, interviews with them – and sad views of a huge amount of various waste at the bottom of the lake.

The event was also attended by volunteer-divers from the “Clean Issyk-Kul” movement. The students got to know the rescuers of our lake live, asked them a huge number of questions and heard firsthand stories about difficult volunteer work, about the flora and fauna of the lake, about the project “Save Issyk-Kul from nets” and the fight against poachers, about the preservation of ecosystems and the importance of such work.

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