Jellyfish are displacing commercial fish from the Sea of Azov
The Sea of Azov has ceased to be one of the most productive bodies of water in the Northern Hemisphere. This happened due to increased salinity levels in the water.
Such data were reported by Andrey Kulish, a senior researcher at the Karadag Scientific Station - Nature Reserve of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Currently, the Sea of Azov is faced with two global problems. One problem is caused by human activity, which regulates the flow by providing water to some enterprises. Accordingly, it actively interferes with the ecosystem and changes it. And the second problem is global climate change.
We know that active aridization of the territory is now taking place, as a result of which the salinity increases not only in the Sea of Azov itself, but also the salinity in all rivers that carry water specifically to the Sea of Azov begins to increase,” the scientist emphasized.
He recalled that the Sea of Azov has always been famous for several groups of fish, primarily sturgeon, which were the hallmark of the Soviet Union, and now Russia. Now the sturgeon population is in a depressed state, despite the fact that there is a network of state sturgeon hatcheries that release young fish into the Sea of Azov.
“However, this is not enough. Accordingly, it is necessary to predict a set of measures and work with double capacity. Next are semi-anadromous fish species that everyone knows: Azov herring, pike perch, ram. Now we remember them less and less. Because the same salinity increases, and for the normal life of these types of fish, slightly salted water is needed.
There are also positive aspects, although they may not look so good compared to all the others. Thus, due to the increase in salinity, the reserves of the Azov kalkan, which were previously squeezed into the Sivash region, are growing, but now they spawn in almost the entire water area of the Azov Sea,” Kulish pointed out.
But most of all, the salinity of the water affected the population of yellow jellyfish that litter the coastal strip of Azov.
“Indeed, we have accumulated all-season observations in the Sea of Azov, at least in its central part and the Kerch region. Already based on the results of more than 10 expeditions, one conclusion can be drawn - salinization of the Azov Sea caused an outbreak of the population of yellow jellyfish, and, accordingly, the food supply of many fish species disappeared or decreased several times.
Therefore, the solution to the problem of gelatinous insects, which scientists have repeatedly stated, is also a solution to the problem of aquatic biological resources,” explained Natalia Milchakova, head of the phytoresources laboratory of the Federal Research Center InBYUM, Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation.
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