Losses To Fishing Industry Due To Explosion Of Kakhovka HEPP Estimated At UAH 11 Billion

The estimated amount of losses to the fishing industry due to the Russian occupiers undermining the Kakhovka HEPP is estimated at more than UAH 11 billion.

This is stated in the message of the State Fisheries Agency of Ukraine, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

According to the report, only due to the flooding of two state-owned fish hatcheries of the State Fisheries Agency, Ukrainian reservoirs will lack stocking of fish in the amount of 16 million of valuable types of aquatic bioresources annually.

"In particular, the Kherson production-experimental plant for the breeding of juveniles of partial fish ensured the annual introduction of 13.4 million specimens of valuable fish species (6.2 million specimens of aboriginal and 7.2 million specimens of herbivores). Another 2.6 million specimens of fry of valuable species of fish, including 1.6 million specimens of sturgeon species, was to be annually introduced into domestic reservoirs by the production-experimental Dnipro Sturgeon Fish Breeding Plant named after Academician S. T. Artiushchyk," the message reads.

It is noted that according to preliminary calculations, the financial losses to the state only from the loss of the factory's repair and brood stock of sturgeon species (almost 19,000 specimens of sterlet, sturgeon and stellate sturgeon) will amount to more than UAH 900 million.

At the same time, the dynamics of the level regime of the Kakhovka Reservoir indicates a real prospect of complete drainage of the reservoir bed, i.e., in fact, only the old channel of the Dnieper River may remain under water.

As a result, this can lead to the mass death of aquatic biological resources.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the estimated amount of damage caused to the environment due to the Russian occupiers' undermining of the Kakhovka HEPP already amounts to more than UAH 55 billion.