On 22 May 2025 in the Astrakhan Oblast, a ceremony took place to sum up the results and to award the winners of the Environmental Awareness Project “Protect Nature of Our Native Land”, as well as to release young fish into the natural habitat under the project.
The event was attended by the CPC-R Deputy General Director for RF Government Relations Mikhail Grishankov, the Minister for Social Development and Labor of the Astrakhan Oblast Anton Gudimenko, the Head of the Volga-Caspian Territorial Authority of the Federal Fishery Agency Oleg Malkin and the Head of the Volga-Caspian Branch of the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute for Fishery and Oceanography (CaspNIRH) Anatoly Bogachev.
The results summing-up of the Project “Protect Nature of Our Native Land” was preceded by handing over to the Institute of a tractor with a dump trailer and a rotor-type mower. CPC allocated RUR 3.6 million to procure these special vehicles to be used for environmental activities.
The awareness-raising part of the project included 30 open lessons titled “Sturgeon is a relict fish extant from the time of dinosaurs. Let’s preserve it for future generations” in the rural districts of the Astrakhan Oblast hosting the CPC operations.
The lessons aroused a genuine interest and active response of the schoolchildren that showed, in particular, in a creative competition. 234 works were submitted for the competition, out of them 97 were arts and crafts, 95 posters, 42 literary works. For the first time this year, the organizers decided to increase up to four the number of prize-winning places in each nomination. The authors of 36 works received valuable prizes.
Another award for the winners was participation in the release into the natural habitat from the NEKA “BIOS” pier of 200 ea of young beluga weighing from 350g to 1kg.
Also on 22 May 2025, more than 14,480 (20–350g) fingerlings of Russian beluga and sevruga were released in the Volga delta area.