In July, the minimum number of amateur fishermen, small boats and tents was recorded for all years of observations. The decrease in activity was influenced by problems with fuel, as well as increased discharge of water from the Volgograd mine: due to rising water levels, areas convenient for fishing were flooded, the speed of the current and the amount of floating debris increased.
Mostly local fishermen went out to the reservoirs using spinning rods, bottom and float rods. The catches were dominated by grouper, perch, walleye, rapeseed, catfish, silver carp, carp and pike. The high number of pike fingerlings was particularly noted — by the end of the period they reached 25 cm in length and 150 g in weight, which indicates favorable conditions for their growth. There is also a consistently high intensity of fishing for groupers.
Since the beginning of August, the activity of fishermen has begun to grow: the number of fishermen has increased, motorboats have appeared, tent cities have begun to expand. The biological resources caught during the experimental work were released back into the reservoirs after biological analysis.
The collected data will help to assess the anthropogenic impact on populations of aquatic biological resources.
VNIRO Press Service
