Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection has prohibited fishing, including trapping crawfish, in Lake Sevan and rivers emptying into the lake on certain days in December and January to ensure natural reproduction.

The ban will extend from December 1-25 and January 6-20.

While Sevan’s endemic Ishkhan (Salmo ischchan) is all but extinct, an introduced species, the common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus), locally known as Sik, is still fished in numbers.

The ministry says the ban will still allow for a certain harvest of the whitefish by area residents for eventual sale or consumption.

Despite such bans in the past, whitefish somehow make it to Yerevan streets for sale.