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Artwork "One fishy net of values under the sun"
Lena Pozdnyakova
Sculpture (2025)
In their exploration of themes and discourses surrounding the Anthropocene, Eldar Tagi and Lena Pozdnyakova frequently incorporate found objects and discarded materials. These items serve as manifestations of collective societal behaviors, reflecting patterns of mass production, consumption, waste, and pollution.
Fish populations in the Caspian Sea are declining due to overfishing, habitat loss, dam construction, and pollution. The minoga, a migratory fish listed in all Caspian countries’ Red Books, can no longer reach upstream spawning grounds due to hydro-engineering projects. The Caspian salmon (Salmo trutta caspius), once heavily fished, is now critically endangered and included in the Red Books of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, with annual catches dropping from over 600 tons in the 1940s to just 5 tons by the 1960s. The Caspian white fish (Stenodus leucichthys leucichthys), endemic to the region, has suffered a dramatic decline, from 1,400 tons annually in the 1930s to 0.4 tons by the 1950s, primarily due to the Volga River damming. The multi-staminal herring, once the most commonly fished herring species, and the kutum (Rutilus frissi kutum), a rare carp species, are also now listed as threatened. In Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, species such as the marine pike-perch, barbel, and ship sturgeon have seen sharp declines, partly due to intensified oil and gas development. Illegal fishing, particularly in the 1990s, severely impacted valuable commercial species like sturgeon and salmon, prompting calls for broader Red Book protections across the region.
In the 1990s, a rise in illegal fishing severely impacted sturgeon and salmon, causing their numbers to plummet. Along the Azeri coast, species such as the barbel (Barbus mursa) and Danubian bleak (Chalcalburnus chalcoides) are now under threat of extinction. Azerbaijani experts recommend their inclusion in the National Red Book. Similarly, in Kazakhstan, species like the sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), barbel, and spiny loach (Gobitis aurata) are proposed for Red Book listing due to sharp population declines. Man-made pollution, including discarded fishing nets and industrial waste, has also caused the death of numerous species, as fish and other marine animals become entangled or poisoned, further accelerating biodiversity loss in the sea.
The Caspian Sea remains one of the world’s last major sturgeon spawning grounds. Over the past few decades, their population has already dropped by 90 percent, and falling water levels now threaten their key spawning sites. For the commercial fishing industry, this could mean losses in the tens of millions of dollars.
Maps showing: Summer/Autumn and Winter/Spring sturgeon ranges under estimated Caspian Sea level decline scenarios; inset graph quantifies percentage area reduction for each season group.
In February 2025, The Village Kazakhstan published an article titled 'There are concerns that the Caspian may share the fate of the Aral Sea', in which it reported on the catastrophe and the shrinking of the world’s largest inland body of water.
In 2024, artists Lena Pozdnyakova and Eldar Tagi explored the disappearance of once-flourishing sturgeon populations from the Aral Sea through their artistic practice
Documentation of art installation about the sturrgeon and its changing habitat.
Learning from the Aral Sea
Written piece for the project
“Bodies of Water/ Listening to Dead Fish Singing”(2025)
The soundscape of the project about the sturgeon consists of field recordings, natural underwater sounds, synthesized dust sounds, and voices from the region.
Three directions are explored: dust, water and history.
Sources and references for quotes, schemes and other information used in creation of thsi awareness-raising artistic project
Caspian Environment Programme. (n.d.). Rare species in danger of extinction. https://archive.iwlearn.net/caspian.iwlearn.org/caspian.iwlearn.org/caspian.iwlearn.org/caspian-1/biodiversity-1/rare-species-in-danger-of-extinction.html
Beysembayev, D. (2025, February 5). Есть опасения, что Каспий может повторить судьбу Арала [There are concerns that the Caspian may share the fate of the Aral Sea]. The Village Kazakhstan. Retrieved from https://www.the-village-kz.com/village/city/situation/39269-est-opaseniya-chto-kaspiy-mozhet-povtorit-sudbu-arala
Nelson, H. (2023, June 20). Kazakhstan makes efforts to save the declining Caspian seal population. Caspian Policy Center. Retrieved from https://www.caspianpolicy.org/research/security-and-politics-program-spp/kazakhstan-makes-efforts-to-save-the-declining-caspian-seal-population
Maps are sourced from: Court, R., Lattuada, M., Shumeyko, N. et al. Rapid decline of Caspian Sea level threatens ecosystem integrity, biodiversity protection, and human infrastructure. Commun Earth Environ 6, 261 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02212-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02212-5
NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using data from the Level 1 and Atmospheres Active Distribution System (LAADS), and ocean bathymetry data from the British Oceanographic Data Center’s Global Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans GEBCO_08 Grid, Version 20100927. Caption by Michon Scott, with information from Walt Meier, National Snow and Ice Data Center.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/80745/ice-on-the-caspian-sea