Int'l workshop in Caspian ecosystem to open in Astrakhan.

ASTRAKHAN, October 11 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's southern city of
Astrakhan hosts an international workshop on preserving the ecosystem of
the Caspian Sea amid the massive development of oil and gas deposits
located on the continental shelf.
The workshop opens Tuesday.
Officials at the Caspian Research Institute of Fisheries told
Itar-Tass the conference has been organized in cooperation with the
company LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft, a regional subsidiary of the Russian oil
industry's major, OAO LUKOIL.
The workshop will bring together the leading researchers of fishery
institutes, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and major fishery centers of
the Caspian littoral states and other countries.
Executives and experts from oil and gas companies will attend the
conference, too.
The participants will review the current status of the ecosystem and
biological resources of the Caspian Sea and the prospects for continued
development of the production of oil gas.
"Also, they will map out a range of nature conservation measures aimed
at keeping up the biological diversity of the sea and the numeric strength
of the populations of commercial fishes in the conditions of large-scale
oil and gas production," a source at the Caspian Fisheries Institute said.
"Another really pressing issue is the developing of appropriate
legislative and ancillary acts for geological surveying and exploration of
oil and gas deposits," he said.
Organizers of the workshop hope it will help consolidate international
cooperation in the interests of preserving the Caspian Sea's unique
ecosystem, integrate the research done in the interests of fishing
industry outlets and the Academy of Sciences, and get familiarized with
the achievements scored by foreign researchers in what concerns of
preserving and rehabilitation of aquatic biological resources.
The workshop will close Thursday, October 13.