Verkhnekamsk Potash Company released sterlet juveniles into the Kama Reservoir under a mandatory environmental protection plan.

VPC released approximately 5,500 juveniles, divided into six-gramme (average weight) batches, into Chusovaya Bay of the Kama Reservoir near Ust-Shalashnaya in Dobryanka urban district.

The release site was determined by the Perm branch of Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography based on the age of the fish and the most favourable conditions for their survival.

The Company followed the Plan for Artificial Reproduction of Aquatic Biological Resources in 2021, approved by the Middle Volga Regional Department of the Federal Agency for Fishery.

Artificial reproduction measures are aimed at preserving valuable fish species and increasing the commercial fishing importance of natural waterbodies. VPC intends to further implement these measures in its footprint region.

Sterlet is a species of sturgeon listed as threatened in Russia’s Red Data Book.

The juveniles were reared at a fish hatchery owned by the Kama-Volga branch of the Main Department of Fisheries and Conservation of Aquatic Biological Resources (Glavrybvod). They were transported in a special isothermal tank equipped with water oxygenation. Representatives of the Department for State Control, Supervision, and Protection of Aquatic Biological Resources in Perm Krai, a part of the Middle Volga Regional Directorate of the Federal Agency for Fishery, supervised the juveniles’ loading, transportation, and release.