Re-Establishing Naturally Reproducing Sturgeon Populations in the Caspian Basin: A Wicked Problem in the Ural River
Pueppke S.G. Nurtazin S.T. Murzashev T.K. Galymzhanov I.S. Graham N.A. Konysbayev T.
October 2023Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
Water (Switzerland)
2023#15Issue 19
Although Eurasia’s Caspian basin once supported the world’s richest and most diverse complex of sturgeon species, recent human activities have decimated populations of these ecologically and economically important fish. All five anadromous Caspian sturgeon species are critically endangered, and the potamodromous sterlet is also threatened. The precipitous decline of these species is due to a combination of factors that includes illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; destruction of feeding and spawning habitat; water pollution; and the environmental consequences of climate change. International efforts are currently underway to re-establish sustained naturally reproducing sturgeon populations in the basin. Here, we update and review the status of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea with emphasis on the northern basin and the inflowing Volga and Ural rivers. We then focus on efforts to restore sturgeon in the Ural, which originates in Russia and flows through Kazakhstan before entering the Caspian Sea. With nearly ideal hydrological conditions for sturgeon, the Ural is the basin’s sole remaining river that allows migrating sturgeon unimpeded access to potentially productive spawning grounds. The challenge of re-establishing sturgeon in the Ural River exhibits the classical characteristics of wicked problems: ambiguous definitions, changing assumptions and unanticipated consequences, tradeoffs and economic dependencies, an incomplete and contradictory knowledge base, and no straightforward pathway toward a final solution. This challenge is examined here for the first time from the perspective of its wicked dynamics, with consideration given to approaches that have proven effective elsewhere in resolving wicked environmental problems.
anadromous sturgeon , Caspian Sea basin , habitat loss , IUU fishing , sturgeon hatcheries , Ural River , Volga River , wicked problems
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Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, 1405 South Harrison Road, East Lansing, 48823, MI, United States
Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Michigan State University, 427 North Shaw Lane, East Lansing, 48824, MI, United States
Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 al-Farabi Avenue, Almaty, 050040, Kazakhstan
Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, Zhangir Khan Western Agrarian and Technical University, 51 Zhangir Khan Street, Uralsk, 090009, Kazakhstan
James Madison College, Michigan State University, 842 Chestnut Road, East Lansing, 48824, MI, United States
Center for Global Change and Earth Observations
Center for European
Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology
Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry
James Madison College
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