In a milestone for Kazakhstan’s fishing industry, the first batch of salmonid fingerlings has been delivered to the Marine Terminal Sarzha at Kuryk port for on-growing in sea cages in the Caspian Sea.

Specialized live-fish trucks equipped with tanks arrived at the port, where the fingerlings were carefully unloaded and transferred into transport cages. From Kuryk port, the cages will be towed out to the company’s offshore aquaculture site.

Once at the site, the fingerlings will be moved into big sea cages, marking the start of the first full production cycle of farming fish in the Caspian Sea.

It is the first time in history of both Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea that sea cages are being stocked with fingerlings for marine aquaculture. The event signals a shift from years of scientific work and infrastructure build-out to the hands-on phase of commercial production.

The stocking continues the rollout of Central Asia’s first sea-based aquaculture project in the Caspian, which Organic Fish is developing with the support of the Administration of Mangystau Region. Earlier, the company installed its first sea cages at a site located about 20 kilometers south of the port of Kuryk.