(Full Write-Up on WaterWiki)  

The Pearl Mullet is the jewel of Lake Van in Turkey. Found nowhere else in the world, this fish thrives in the lake's salty and carbonated waters, which are inhospitable to other forms of fresh-water and marine fish. In May and June of each year the Pearl Mullet travels upstream through the lake's tributaries to lay eggs, flying through the air like salmon. And there lies the problem.

Many locals have become accustomed to the ease of sticking out bags and catching troves of fish as they jump out of the water. They catch so many Pearl Mullets in May-June that they don't have to fish for the rest of the year. And locals prefer to catch the fish during reproduction season, when the females are filled with eggs, which are considered a delicacy.

This is also the best recipe for killing off the species. Despite a government ban on fishing during reproduction season, this kind of fishing has become a big business. In the 1960s only 600 tons of Pearl Mullets were harvested annually; today that figure has jumped to 15,000 tons. Hence a project of the Nature Observers Society, funded by the Global Environmental Facility's Small Grants

Programme (SGP) and implemented by UNDP, started in 2001 to help find solutions to ensure that if the fish are to be caught, they should not be caught with their eggs.

The first phase of the project focused on supporting the enforcement of the ban. Project staff informed the gendarmerie about when the ban goes into effect and explained to the local inhabitants that fishing the Pearl Mullet during reproduction season is illegal. If caught, fishermen were fined and their catch confiscated. But this did not stem the fishing because it was such a valuable source of income for the villages living around Lake Van.

Later the project changed course. It recognized that as long as it tried to tackle the problem through enforcement, it would continue to fail. Hence it started to educate the local inhabitants about the risks of fishing during reproduction season in terms of the threat this posed to the future of their livelihood. It encouraged them to fish during the other months of the year, and the project built canning and cold storage facilities to help ensure a smooth source of income year-round. And by 2006 the project staff was working to change the nutritional habits of the local inhabitants by meeting with women to teach them equally tasty methods of cooking the Pearl Mullets without the eggs.

The project has now had some success. Out of 15 villages located near Lake Van, 12 have switched to fishing during the non-reproductive season. Whereas in 1996, 80-90 percent of fishing was done during reproduction season, by 2006 this has fallen to 60 percent. Still too much, but a strong start. By moving away from a focus on enforcement, the project has achieved greater success. "You cannot protect an ecosystem by disregarding all the people who are living off of it", said Ozge Gokce of SGP.