Abstract
The hydrological regime of water reservoirs in different years has a decisive impact on the abundance of commercial fish stocks and the quality of ichthyocenoses. In this connection in 2015-2016 there was conducted a retrospective analysis and ranking of hydrological regime impact on these factors. The paper gives evaluation of catches and fish stocks under different scenarios of water availability in the main fishing ponds of the Republic of Kazakhstan that give about 80% of the annual fish catch of the country (except the Caspian Sea). There were analyzed 2000 factors of hydrological regime (water level, annual discharge) and 1845 factors of fishing stocks (catches, abundance, fish biomass). The paper determines the critical characteristics of water availability for fish stocks. There have been proposed a number of administrative decisions and actions in case if water content would approach to the critical level. Among them: limitation of fish catches in the following year; widening zones restricted for fishing; intensification of safety measures of the fish young in residual ponds during arid periods; introduction of catch standards for a unit of fishing effort in low-water years, high-water years and years with normal water level in rivers.