Changes in the Fisheries of Çıldır Lake (Turkey) in the Last Twenty Years

Commercial fishing activities have been implemented for a long time in the lake çıldır. lake is an important natural resource for local people and rural settlement in its surrounding. in the lake, fisheries management that was conducted jointly by cooperatives and responsible authority was unsuccessful. the most important indicators of this event are the collapse of the native carp (cyprinus carpio) stock with native trout stock (salmo trutta caspius) were in the process of extinction in the lake. the results of the catch statistics confirm this result. the introduction of curician carp (carrasius gibelio) that is an exotic and invasive fish species and the crayfish (astacus leptodactylus) in the 2000s after appearing the collapse of the native stocks on the lake since the beginning of 1990 has caused effects on the native fish populations. in addition to these events, unsuccessful assays of cage culture for the rainbow trout (oncornhychus mykiss), the unplanned and casual introductions of the mirror carp and the increase of water needs of the arpaçay hydroelectric power plant have affected the reproduction and feeding areas of the fish which consisted of shallow-coastal and sensitive zones. the reasons of overfishing and interaction between native and exotic species in lake çıldır are explained in present study. nowadays, the lake is under the risk due to the lack of 'sustainable lake management strategy’ and wrong applications like overfishing, fish introductions and aquaculture. there is a need for a new management strategy supporting by the comprehensive research will be conducted on the lake ecosystem and on the fish fauna of lake, and ehabilitation of fish fauna changed adversely in terms of native fish species’ from this point of view.