A public hearing on a plan to restore fish stocks in Lake Sevan and to develop fish farming will be held on October 27 at the Kartchagbyur village municipality.

The plan is the brainchild of a commercial outfit called Sevan Ishkhan, which was formed by Armenia’s Ministry of Agriculture.

Lake Sevan was once prized for its endemic (Salmo ischchan), a salmonid fish related to the brown trout.

Back in April of this year a committee tasked with assessing the issue of restoring the Ishkhan fish species in Lake Sevan told a government cabinet session   that two of the four sub-species were forever extinct. The two extinct strains are the winter bakhtak (Salmo ischchan ischchan) and the bojak (Salmo ischchan danilewskii).

The other two strains -the summer bakhtak and gegharkuni - are mainly propagated by hatcheries and the committee confesses there is no natural reproduction.