Was fry mortality due to pumps?

By Murat Sultangaliev

On June 6 the employees of nature protection prosecutor's office showed to journalists an irrigation canal in Makhambet District where mass death of fry fish took place the day before.

The water channel is located near Ortakshyl (aul # 13) settlement. The channel is 8 kilometers long and frequently used for watering melons. When we arrived to the scene there were dead whitebaits of vobla fish floating in the channel. The channel was cleaned from dead fry the day before by four fishing teams from Makhambet fish inspection.

According to Armand Moldachev, the chief of a regional fishery inspection, they recovered from the channel about one thousand dead whitebaits. The assistant to the nature protection prosecutor of Atyrau region Aktan Kuanov said that they have photos and video of the water surface covered with dead fry fish.

- The possible cause of fish death could be non-compliance with fish-protecting measures when using pumps and taking water from the channel for watering the crop, said A. Kuanov. We are establishing the guilty parties and the cause of damage.