Premises, organization and development of sprat trawl fishing in the Middle Caspian Sea

The purpose of the work is to study the possibility of organizing a new type of Caspian Sea sprat fishing in the western part of the Middle Caspian Sea using multi–depth trawls.The method is the performance in 2009–2012 of all-season expeditionary search trawl-acoustic, ichthyological and hydrological works using generally accepted methods.The novelty consists in the conducted studies allowed to assess the distribution and formation of commercial clusters of Caspian Sea sprat in the pre-winter and winter period in the western part of the Middle Caspian Sea. We revealed that in the cold season, in conditions of the lowest water temperature values, specific changes in the behavior of Caspian Sea sprat occur here, which make it possible to effectively catch its accumulations with a multi-depth trawl.The results are based on the analysis of research materials from 2009–2012 that allowed to develop a biological justification for the organization of a new type of marine fishing in the Caspian Sea — the extraction     of Caspian Sea sprat by multi-depth trawls.The practical significance — based on the recommendations of CaspNIRKH in 2019, a Russian trawl fishery for Caspian Sea sprat was organized in the western part of the Middle Caspian Sea, which is currently developing successfully.