New scientific fishing gear

 

The Middle Volga branch of VNIRO carried out voyages on the research vessel “Viktor Klimov” in the summer period from June 16 to 20 and June 30 to July 4, 2025; the work was carried out in the waters of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir.

 

The duration of the expeditions was 10 ship days. The task was to set up and test the new fishing gear manufactured by the branch specialists, and to perform control trawls during the summer feeding period in the waters of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir within the boundaries of the Volgograd and Rostov regions.

 

The vessel's crew included 2 trawling equipment specialists and 3 ichthyologist specialists. A total of 40 test trawls were performed during the voyage. Trawl catches were carried out in the deep-water part of the reservoir using a traditional grid of stations, which included more than 34 sites.

 

Works using the new trawl equipment have shown high efficiency of its use. The catch per trawling within the boundaries of the Volgograd region was 261 kg, within the boundaries of the Rostov region - 422.6 kg. A total of 21 species of aquatic biological resources were present in the catches, among which the predominant ones were silver crucian carp 40.4%, bream 34.6%, pike perch 6.8%, carp 3%, white bream 4.6%, catfish 3.6% and sabrefish 2%, other species were found in smaller quantities.

 

The beginning of summer was characterized by changeable weather conditions, frequent rains, strong winds and cool weather. In such conditions, accumulations of aquatic biological resources are evenly distributed across the reservoir and are confined to shallow areas, which are warmer with a high level of food resources. The water temperature in various parts of the reservoir reached 19-220C, the level is decreasing and currently amounts to 33.9 m BS (NPU 36 mBS). In the catches in deep-water trawl areas during this period, fish aged 2-4 years, juvenile bream, pike perch, carp and catfish of less than commercial size (75-85%) were noted.

 

The collected scientific material is being processed, work using the research vessel "Viktor Klimov" will be continued in the second ten-day period of July.

 

Press service of VNIRO