TEHRANThe food reserves of the Caspian Sea are being severely threated by growing pollution and ongoing contamination of these waters which serve several states around it.This has been proved by the research conducted in this respect by Most of the contamination and pollution in the Caspian Sea is caused by the offshore drilling and exploration of oil and the dumping into these waters of all kinds of human and agricultural waste and toxic materials generated by the industries.

These wa Iran and Russia are the only two countries which are highly concerned about the environment of this lake and take serious steps according to their well formulated plans to control pollution and contamination in the Caspian Sea but their efforts alone wer The Iran Fishing Company is taking necessary steps in this direction. The Director General of the Iran Fishing Company, Mohammad Qasemi told the TEHRAN TIMES that the second national development plan has authorised the Iran Fishing Company to make necessary investments to preserve and multiply the food reserves in the C Murtaza Mughaddasi, the head of the a regeneration centre at Sari, said that his fish development centre alone has produced 400 million white fish during the past ten years for raising and multiplication in Caspian waters.

He said the steps being taken t Another field in which Iran was taking calculated steps and making concerted research and studies is the control of pollution and keeping its environment safe and healthy. The head of the Mazandran Fishing Research Centre, Reza Pourgholam said this centre has formulated over 80 research plans for the regeneration, multiplication and rapid development of fishing reserves and to take scientific steps to keep the Caspian wate He said that after the break up of the Soviet Union and coming on the world map of newly independent states around the Caspian Sea, the unauthorised fishing into this lake crossed all reasonable limits causing the number of certain species to dwindle rap Mughaddasi said that unauthorised catch and the contamination of Caspian waters was a great problem which was hampering the regeneration process of many species of fish including the sturgeon.

To preserve and to develop the resrves of sturgeons, the production of Caviar was gradually reduced from 220 tons to 40 tons during the past six years, he said and recalled that the Caviar produced in Iran was considered to be the best in the whole world The Director of fishing development and production in the province of Mazandran has said that due to scientific measures taken by the fishing authorities, the rate of regeneration of sturgeons has considerably increased.

Together with these measures, the Iranian Fishing Development authorities have also taken appropriate measures to boost the cold storage facilities and improve the quality of packing in a bid to promote Iranian exports of fish and caviar and earn valuab The Iranian fishery officials were of the opinion that all littoral states of the Caspian sea should promote cooperation among themselves and make joint efforts to presreve the environment of this giant lake and save its waters from contamination which i CAPTIONS: The valuable and best quality Caviar producing fish from the Caspian Sea. Iran supplies 90 percent of the world demand for best quality caviar.

The polluted and contaminated waters of the Caspian Sea where many species are threatened with extinction due to the dumping of toxic waste coming from nearby industries and the unauthorised fishing. If all the littoral states of the Caspian sea do not p