(Source: http://www.greenmama.ua/nid/2777291)

The town of Narimanov is located 45 kilometers to the north of Astrakhan, on the right high bank of the Volga River. Almost half a century ago, in 1966, they began to build the dam water distributor there, which was to distribute water along the Volga Delta, and provide conditions for spawning of fish in the years of low flood.

In 1973 the dam was opened, the gateway channel started working two years later. Today you can see an unusual picture in this gateway. There are more than one hundred fish boxes at a distance of several hundred meters up and down the river, in the gateway alignment and under its cover.

Sharp-nosed fish are splashing in these boxes, like in a dolphinarium. The boxes belong to the Astrakhan aquaculture company “Beluga” - it has been engaged in fish processing and production of caviar since Soviet times.

Since 2000, when catching sturgeons in the country has been completely prohibited, several private companies and farms began to grow valuable fish in captivity in Astrakhan Oblast. The specialists of “Beluga” were among the first to start experimenting on the domestication of Russian sturgeon and Caspian beluga. Caspian beluga, which is endangered today, is grown only here and nowhere else.

This fish is reproduced only in an artificial way. The caviar of beluga and Russian sturgeon is considered to be the most delicious and most expensive in the world. It remains one of the main symbols of the Caspian Sea. The specialists of the farm learned to make it, literally, without victims: the fish are not killed, as it has always been done, they are only “milked”. A part of the obtained caviar goes to the processing plant and then to the counter of the company store in Astrakhan.

The rest is used for the cultivation of the young fish, which is then released into the Caspian Sea. Remember that the gateway is a secret object. You cannot just visit the farm, the guards will not let you through. Excursions must be ordered in advance 2-3 earlier, so that the farm employees could get a permission for admission of a certain number of people.

Read more about Astrakhan Region... 

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