What cities are washed by the Caspian Sea. Caspian states: borders, map

, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan

Geographical position

Caspian Sea - view from space.

The Caspian Sea is located at the junction of two parts of the Eurasian continent - Europe and Asia. The length of the Caspian Sea from north to south is about 1200 kilometers (36 ° 34 "-47 ° 13" N), from west to east - from 195 to 435 kilometers, on average 310-320 kilometers (46 ° -56 ° c. d.).

The Caspian Sea is conventionally divided by physical and geographical conditions into 3 parts - the North Caspian, the Middle Caspian and the South Caspian. The conventional border between the North and Middle Caspian runs along the line about. Chechnya - Cape Tyub-Karagan, between the Middle and South Caspian - along the line about. Residential - Cape Gan-Gulu. The area of \u200b\u200bthe North, Middle and South Caspian Sea is 25, 36, 39 percent, respectively.

Caspian Sea coast

Coast of the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan

The territory adjacent to the Caspian Sea is called the Caspian region.

Peninsulas of the Caspian Sea

• Ashur-Ada
• Garasu
• Zyanbil
• Hara-Zira
• Sengi-Mugan
• Chygyl

Bays of the Caspian Sea

• Russia (Dagestan, Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region) - in the west and north-west, the length of the coastline is about 1930 kilometers
• Kazakhstan - in the north, north-east and east, the length of the coastline is about 2320 kilometers
• Turkmenistan - in the southeast, the length of the coastline is about 650 kilometers
• Iran - in the south, the length of the coastline is about 1000 kilometers
• Azerbaijan - in the southwest, the length of the coastline is about 800 kilometers

Cities on the Caspian Sea coast

On the Russian coast there are cities - Lagan, Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Izberbash and the southernmost city of Russia Derbent. The port city of the Caspian Sea is also considered Astrakhan, which, however, is not located on the shores of the Caspian Sea, but in the Volga delta, 60 kilometers from the northern coast of the Caspian Sea.

Physiography

Area, depth, volume of water

The area and volume of water in the Caspian Sea varies significantly depending on fluctuations in water level. At a water level of -26.75 m, the area is approximately 371,000 square kilometers, the volume of water is 78,648 cubic kilometers, which is approximately 44% of the world's lake water reserves. The maximum depth of the Caspian Sea is in the South Caspian depression, 1025 meters above its surface. In terms of maximum depth, the Caspian Sea is second only to Baikal (1620 m) and Tanganyika (1435 m). The average depth of the Caspian Sea, calculated using the bathygraphic curve, is 208 meters. At the same time, the northern part of the Caspian is shallow, its maximum depth does not exceed 25 meters, and the average depth is 4 meters.

Water level fluctuations

Vegetable world

The flora of the Caspian Sea and its coast is represented by 728 species. Of the plants in the Caspian Sea, algae predominate - blue-green, diatoms, red, brown, charovy and others, of flowering plants - zostera and ruppia. By origin, the flora belongs mainly to the Neogene age, however, some plants were introduced into the Caspian Sea by humans deliberately or on the bottoms of ships.

History of the Caspian Sea

Origin of the Caspian Sea

Anthropological and cultural history of the Caspian Sea

The finds in the Khuto cave off the southern coast of the Caspian Sea indicate that people lived in these parts about 75 thousand years ago. The first mentions of the Caspian Sea and tribes living on its coast are found at Herodotus. Approximately in the V-II centuries. BC e. tribes of Saks lived on the coast of the Caspian. Later, during the period of the settlement of the Turks, during the IV-V centuries. n. e. Talysh tribes (Talysh) lived here. According to ancient Armenian and Iranian manuscripts, Russians sailed in the Caspian Sea from the 9th-10th centuries.

Exploration of the Caspian Sea

The exploration of the Caspian Sea was begun by Peter the Great, when, on his order, in 1714-1715, an expedition was organized under the leadership of A. Bekovich-Cherkassky. In the 1720s, hydrographic studies were continued by the expedition of Karl von Verden and F.I.Soimonov, and later by I.V. Tokmachev, M.I.Voinovich and other researchers. At the beginning of the 19th century, instrumental survey of the coast was carried out by I.F.Kolodkin, in the middle of the 19th century. - instrumental geographic survey under the direction of N. A. Ivashintsev. Since 1866, for more than 50 years, expeditionary research on the hydrology and hydrobiology of the Caspian has been conducted under the leadership of N.M. Knipovich. In 1897, the Astrakhan Research Station was founded. In the first decades of Soviet power in the Caspian Sea, geological research by I.M. Gubkin and other Soviet geologists was actively carried out, mainly aimed at finding oil, as well as research to study the water balance and fluctuations in the level of the Caspian Sea.

Economy of the Caspian Sea

Mining of oil and gas

There are many oil and gas fields being developed in the Caspian Sea. The proven oil resources in the Caspian Sea are about 10 billion tons, the total oil and gas condensate resources are estimated at 18-20 billion tons.

Oil production in the Caspian Sea began in 1820, when the first oil well was drilled on the Absheron shelf near Baku. In the second half of the 19th century, oil production began in industrial volumes on the Absheron Peninsula, and then in other territories.

Shipping

Shipping is well developed in the Caspian Sea. There are ferry services on the Caspian Sea, in particular, Baku - Turkmenbashi, Baku - Aktau, Makhachkala - Aktau. The Caspian Sea has a navigable connection with the Azov Sea through the Volga, Don and Volga-Don Canal.

Fishing and seafood production

Fishing (sturgeon, bream, carp, pike perch, sprat), caviar, and seal fishing. More than 90 percent of the world's sturgeon catch is carried out in the Caspian Sea. In addition to industrial production, illegal production of sturgeon and their caviar is flourishing in the Caspian Sea.

Recreational resources

The natural environment of the Caspian coast with sandy beaches, mineral waters and curative mud in the coastal area creates good conditions for recreation and treatment. At the same time, in terms of the development of resorts and the tourism industry, the Caspian coast is noticeably inferior to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. However, in last years the tourism industry is actively developing on the coasts of Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Russian Dagestan. A resort area in the Baku region is actively developing in Azerbaijan. At the moment, a world-class resort has been created in Amburan, another modern tourist complex is being built in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Nardaran, recreation in the sanatoriums of the villages of Bilgakh and Zagulba is very popular. A resort area is also developing in Nabran, in the north of Azerbaijan. However, high prices, a generally low level of service and a lack of advertising lead to the fact that there are almost no foreign tourists at the Caspian resorts. The development of the tourism industry in Turkmenistan is hindered by a long-term policy of isolation, in Iran - by Sharia law, which makes it impossible for foreign tourists to spend mass vacations on the Caspian coast of Iran.

Environmental problems

The ecological problems of the Caspian Sea are associated with water pollution as a result of oil production and transportation on the continental shelf, the influx of pollutants from the Volga and other rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea, the life of coastal cities, as well as flooding of certain objects due to the rise in the level of the Caspian Sea. Predatory hunting of sturgeon and their caviar, rampant poaching lead to a decrease in the number of sturgeons and to forced restrictions on their production and export.

International status of the Caspian Sea

Legal status of the Caspian Sea

After the collapse of the USSR, the division of the Caspian Sea for a long time was and still remains the subject of unresolved disagreements related to the division of the resources of the Caspian shelf - oil and gas, as well as biological resources. For a long time, negotiations were going on between the Caspian states on the status of the Caspian Sea - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan insisted on dividing the Caspian along the median line, Iran - on dividing the Caspian one fifth of each between all the Caspian states.

In relation to the Caspian, the key is the physical and geographical circumstance that it is a closed inland water body that does not have a natural connection with the World Ocean. Accordingly, the norms and concepts of international maritime law, in particular, the provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, should not be automatically applied to the Caspian Sea. economic zone "," continental shelf ", etc.

The current legal regime of the Caspian Sea was established by the Soviet-Iranian treaties of 1921 and 1940. These treaties provide for freedom of navigation throughout the sea, freedom of fishing except for ten-mile national fishing zones and a ban on ships flying the flag of non-Caspian states in its waters.

Negotiations on the legal status of the Caspian are currently ongoing.

Delimitation of sections of the seabed of the Caspian Sea for the purpose of subsoil use

The Russian Federation signed an agreement with Kazakhstan on delimiting the bottom of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights to subsoil use (dated July 6, 1998 and the Protocol to it dated May 13, 2002), an agreement with Azerbaijan on delimiting adjacent sections of the bottom of the northern part of the Caspian Sea (dated September 23, 2002), as well as the trilateral Russian-Azerbaijani-Kazakh agreement on the junction point of the delimitation lines of adjacent sections of the seabed of the Caspian Sea (dated 14 May 2003), which established the geographic coordinates of the dividing lines delimiting the sections of the seabed, within which the parties exercise their sovereign rights in the field of exploration and production of mineral resources.

I was restingsomehow in the camp... It's no secret that almost every day contests are held there to entertain children and youth. So that's it. Was we have quiz. Question: "Which lake is the largest?" One guy of about fifteen was the first to raise his hand and answer: "Baikal". The strangest thing was that the answer was counted as correct! How so? Isn't the Caspian Sea the largest lake? I'll explain to you now.

How to tell the sea from the lake

I will list several signs by which a body of water is defined as a sea.

1. Rivers can flow into the sea.

2. The Outer Sea has direct access to the ocean.

3. If the sea is internal, then it is connected by straits with other seas or directly with the ocean.

Is the Caspian Sea suitable for the parameters of the sea

Need to check, does the Caspian Sea have signs of the sea. Into it really rivers flow, but they flow into many bodies of water: seas, lakes, oceans, and other rivers. The Caspian Sea is surrounded from all sides by land... Is it really inland sea? Then it must connect with the Black or Azov seas any strait. The strait also no... Exactly due to the lack of access to the World Ocean, the Caspian Sea is considered a lake.

"But why was it then called the sea, if it is a lake?" - you ask. Answer very simple: due tohis large size and salinity... Indeed, The Caspian Sea is several times larger than the Azov Sea and is almost the same in size with the Baltic.

Fine! The problem with the quiz has been resolved. Judge for the soap !!!

Well then i told, that the Caspian Sea actually - lake... Now I want to you provide small compilation interesting facts about this lake.

1. The Caspian Sea is below sea level (-28 m),which once again proves that this is a lake.

2. BC near the lake livednomadic caspian tribes, in honor of which he was nicknamed the Caspian.

3. This the deepest enclosed body of water on the planet.

4. Many believe that the name of the group "Caspian Cargo" is related to the Caspian Sea... In some ways they are right ( no). Actually the expression "Caspian cargo" can mean any illegal cargo.

5. Caspian Sea well suitable for tourism... Under the USSR, a large number of sanatoriums were built here. Today the same here you can see many hotels, water parks and beaches.

The Caspian Sea is simultaneously considered both an endless lake and a full-fledged sea. The confusion stems from brackish waters and a marine-like hydrological regime.

The Caspian Sea is located on the border of Asia and Europe. Its area is about 370 thousand km 2, the maximum depth is just over one kilometer. The Caspian Sea is conditionally divided into three almost equal parts: South (39% of the area), Middle (36%) and North (25%).

The sea washes simultaneously the Russian, Kazakh, Azerbaijani, Turkmen and Iranian shores.

Caspian coast (Pre-Caspian) is about 7 thousand kilometers long, if you count together with the islands. In the north, the low sea coast is covered with swamps and thickets, has multiple water channels. Eastern and west Coast The Caspian Sea has a winding shape, in some places the shores are covered with limestone.

There are many islands in the Caspian: Dash-Zira, Kyur Dashi, Dzhambaysky, Boyuk-Zira, Gum, Chigil, Khere-Zira, Zenbil, Ogurchinsky, Tyuleniy, Ashur-Ada, etc. Peninsulas: Mangyshlak, Tyub-Karagan, Apsheronsky and Miankale. Their total area is approximately 400 km 2.

It flows into the Caspian Sea more than a hundred different rivers, the most significant are the Ural, Terek, Volga, Atrek, Emba, Samur. Almost all of them provide the sea with 85–95% of the annual drainage.

The largest bays of the Caspian: Kaidak, Agrakhan, Kazakh, Dead Kultuk, Turkmenbashi, Mangyshlak, Gyzlar, Girkan, Kaidak.

Caspian climate

The Caspian Sea is located in three climatic zones at once: subtropical climate in the south, continental in the north and temperate in the middle. In winter, the average temperature varies from -10 to +10 degrees, while in summer the air warms up to about +25 degrees. During the year, precipitation falls from 110 mm in the east and up to 1500 mm in the west.

The average wind speed is 3‒7 m / s, but in autumn and winter it often increases to 35 m / s. The most drained areas are the coastal areas of Makhachkala, Derbent and the Absheron Peninsula.

Caspian Sea water temperature ranges from zero to +10 degrees in winter, and from 23 to 28 degrees in the summer months. In some coastal shallow waters, the water can warm up to 35-40 degrees.

Only the northern part of the sea is subject to freezing, but in especially cold winters the coastal zones of the middle part are added to it. The ice cover appears in November and disappears only in March.

Problems of the Caspian Region

Water pollution is one of the main environmental problems in the Caspian. Oil production, various harmful substances from flowing rivers, waste from nearby cities - all this negatively affects the state of sea water. Additional troubles are created by poachers, whose actions reduce the number of fish of certain species found in the Caspian Sea.

Sea level rise is also causing serious financial damage to all the Caspian countries.

According to conservative estimates, the restoration of destroyed buildings and the implementation of comprehensive measures to protect the coast from flooding costs tens of millions of dollars.

Cities and resorts on the Caspian Sea

The largest city and port washed by the waters of the Caspian Sea is Baku. Sumgait and Lankaran are among other settlements of Azerbaijan located in close proximity to the sea. On the eastern shores there is the city of Turkmenbashi, and about ten kilometers from it by the sea is the large Turkmen resort of Avaza.

On the Russian side, the following cities are located on the sea coast: Makhachkala, Izberbash, Derbent, Lagan and Kaspiysk. Astrakhan is often called a port city, although it is located about 65 kilometers from the northern shores of the Caspian.

Astrakhan

Beach holidays in this region are not provided: along the sea coast there are only continuous reed thickets. However, tourists go to Astrakhan not for idle lying on the beach, but for fishing and various types active rest: diving, catamarans, jet skis, etc. In July and August, excursion ships run across the Caspian Sea.

Dagestan

For a classic seaside vacation, it is better to go to Makhachkala, Kaspiysk or Izberbash - it is there that not only good sandy beaches are located, but also worthy recreation centers. The range of entertainment on the seashore from the Dagestan side is quite wide: swimming, curative mud springs, windsurfing, kiting, rock climbing and paragliding.

The only disadvantage of this direction is the underdeveloped infrastructure.

In addition, there is an opinion among some Russian tourists that Dagestan is far from the most peaceful territory that is part of the North Caucasian Federal District.

Kazakhstan

A much calmer environment can be found in the Kazakh resorts of Kuryk, Atyrau and Aktau. The latter is the most popular tourist city in Kazakhstan: there are many good entertainment venues and comfortable beaches. In summer, the temperature here is very high, reaching +40 degrees in the daytime, and dropping only to +30 at night.

The disadvantages of Kazakhstan as a tourist country are the same poor infrastructure and rudimentary transport links between the regions.

Azerbaijan

The most the best places for recreation on the Caspian coast, Baku, Nabran, Lankaran and other Azerbaijani resorts are considered. Fortunately, everything is fine with the infrastructure in this country: for example, in the region of the Absheron Peninsula, several modern comfortable hotels with swimming pools and beaches have been built.

However, in order to enjoy a vacation on the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, you need to spend a lot of money. In addition, it is possible to get to Baku quite quickly only by plane - trains rarely run, and the journey from Russia itself takes two or three days.

Tourists should not forget that Dagestan and Azerbaijan are Islamic countries, so all "unbelievers" need to adjust their usual behavior to local customs.

If you follow the simple rules of stay, nothing will spoil your holiday on the Caspian Sea.

Original taken from sibved to the Ancient Caspian. Climate disaster of the recent past

Looking through ancient maps, I constantly paid attention to how the cartographers of that time depicted the Caspian Sea. On early maps, it has an oval shape, slightly elongated in latitude, in contrast to its modern form, where the waters of the Caspian Sea stretch from north to south.

Photos are clickable:

Caspian on the map in its modern form

And the size of the Caspian Sea is completely different. The pool area is larger than the modern one.
Let's take a look at a few ancient maps and see for ourselves.

Here the Caspian already has slightly different outlines, but it is still far from modern

All these maps show that the Caspian Sea has a system of deep rivers flowing into it along the entire perimeter. Now, the main river flowing into the Caspian is the Volga. With so many rivers in the past, this should be a densely populated, fertile land. Ancient cartographers could not be so wrong in the geometric shapes of the reservoir and in the number of rivers flowing into it.
Note that not a single map contains an image, not even a hint of Lake Baikal (this will be useful to us later).
There is no Aral Sea on the maps - it is absorbed by the Caspian Sea, it is one basin.
It is known that the Aral Sea is rapidly drying up, just catastrophically quickly. About 25 years ago, the USSR even had projects to save this sea by turning Siberian rivers. The coastline of the Aral Sea literally before our eyes, over the years went beyond the horizon.

The official reason for such a catastrophic decrease in the water level in the Aral Sea-Lake is the huge water withdrawal from the Amu Darya and Syrdarya rivers for irrigation of cotton fields.
More details

Yes, this process is taking place. But not that much. It seems to me that we have witnessed climatic changes that began long before excessive human economic activity in this region. Many deserts in this region, steppes are the bottom of the ancient Caspian Sea. But not all. Below I will try to explain why.

In the meantime, I will add information from official science confirming changes in the shape and area of \u200b\u200bthe Caspian basin:

The Russian scientist, academician PS Pallas, having visited the low-lying flat shores of the North Caspian, wrote that the Caspian steppes are still in such a state as if they had recently come out from under the water. This idea comes by itself, if you look at these leveled vast spaces, this sandy-clay soil mixed with sea shells, and countless salt marshes. What sea could flood these steppes, if not the Caspian Sea adjacent to them?

Pallas also found traces of a higher standing of the Sea on small hills scattered across the Caspian lowland, like islands in the sea. He found ledges, or terraces, on the slopes of these hills. They could only be produced by sea waves acting for a long time.

Soviet scientists have established that on the shores of the Caspian, especially on the eastern (Mangyshlak and others), three coastal terraces are found at an altitude of 26, 16 and 11 m above the present level of the Caspian. They belong to the last stage of the Khvalynsk Sea, that is, to the period 10 - 20 thousand years ago. On the other hand, there is reliable information about underwater terraces at depths of 4, 8, 12 and 16 - 20 m below the current level.

At a depth of 16–20 m, there is a sharp bend in the transverse profile of the underwater slope, or, in other words, a flooded terrace. The period of such a low sea level dates back to the post-Khvalyn time. Later, in the New Caspian time, which began 3 - 3.5 thousand years ago, the level of the Caspian Sea generally increased, reaching a maximum in 1805.

It turns out that relatively recently in geological time, the level of the Caspian Sea experienced significant fluctuations with an amplitude of about 40 meters.

A large number of coastal ledges - terraces could form only during transgressions (sea advancing on land) and regressions (sea retreat). During the transgression, the sea level remained at a certain height for a long time, and the sea surf had time to process the shores, creating beaches and coastal embankments.

Those. scientists do not deny that even in a very recent geological era, the Caspian Sea was different.

What some figures of the past wrote about the Caspian, let's read:

The first information about the Caspian Sea and its shores was found in the works of ancient Greek and Roman scientists. However, these information, obtained by them from merchants, participants in wars, seafarers, were not accurate and often contradicted each other. For example, Strabo believed that the Syr Darya flows simultaneously with two branches into the Caspian and into the Aral Sea. In the general geography of Claudius Ptolemy, which was the handbook of travelers until the 17th century, the Aral Sea is not mentioned at all.

Ancient maps of ancient geographers have come down to us. Distances between geographical points were then determined by the speed and time of movement of caravans and ships, and the direction of the path was determined by the stars.

Herodotus (who lived about 484-425 BC) was the first to define the Caspian as a sea isolated from the ocean with the ratio of its width to length as 1: 6, which is very close to reality. Aristotle (384-322 BC) confirmed the conclusion of Herodotus. However, many of their contemporaries considered the Caspian to be the northern bay of the ocean, which, in their opinion, surrounded all the land known then.

Ptolemy (90-168 AD), like Herodotus, considered the Caspian Sea closed, but depicted it incorrectly, in a shape approaching a circle.

Later, in 900-1200. AD Arab scholars, following Ptolemy, imagined the Caspian to be closed and round. You can go around the Caspian (Khazar) Sea, returning to the place from which you went, and not encountering obstacles, except for the rivers flowing into the sea, Istakhari wrote. The same was confirmed in 1280 by Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveler who visited China. As we will see below, a misconception about the shape of the Caspian persisted in the Western scientific world until the beginning of the 18th century, when it was refuted by Russian hydrographers.
Source: http://stepnoy-sledopyt.narod.ru/geologia/kmore/geol.htm

From all this, we can conclude that the climatic conditions in this region were different, this is indirectly proved by this map of Africa:

The climate was different not only in Central Asia, but also in the largest desert on the planet - the Sahara. See the huge river that crosses modern desert Africa from east to west and flows into the Atlantic. In addition, a huge number of rivers flow into the Mediterranean and Atlantic - this indicates abundant rainfall in this region, and at least the vegetation of the savannah. The Arabian Peninsula, too, is full of rivers and vegetation.
And this is the climate of the not so distant past, of the past, when people made maps in full.

What could have happened that changed Central Asia, northern Africa beyond recognition? Where did so much sand come from in the Karakum Desert, Sahara?

I will put forward a version based on these cards, which at first glance may be incomprehensible:

It can be seen that the Black Sea and the Caspian are united into one basin and a huge water area flows into them from the northeast and in the center - a huge river flowing from somewhere in the north. There is a connection with the Persian Gulf.

These data are confirmed by scientists:

It turned out that for a very long time, measured in millions of years, the Mediterranean, Black, Azov and Caspian Seas constituted a huge sea basin connected with the World Ocean. This basin has repeatedly changed its shape, area, depth, split into separate parts and rebuilt again.

The stages of development of this basin in the historical sequence received various, purely conditional, names: the Miocene basin, or the sea that existed in the Miocene time, several million years ago, the Sarmatian, Meotic, Pontic, Akchagyl, Apsheron and Khvalynsk seas, closest to our time.
Source: http://stepnoy-sledopyt.narod.ru/geologia/kmore/geol.htm (B.A. Shlyamin. Caspian Sea. 1954. Geografgiz. 128 p.)

Or this is an image of the postglacial period, when from the melting of glaciers, water flowed southward. But who could have drawn such an accurate map at that time?
Or this is an image of a catastrophe in the very recent past, when the Caspian Sea was first oval in shape, and then acquired a modern look. In any case, there were streams of water, a huge layer of sand, silt was deposited, deserts and steppes were formed in this region.
With Africa, the issue is more complicated and requires a more complex study.

I will give a good analysis by A. Lorets: “Ancient civilizations were covered with sand” http://alexandrafl.livejournal.com/4402.html which just shows that not so long ago there were cataclysms, information about which is absent in the present history. Perhaps St. Petersburg was covered with silt and sand at this time and for this reason, and Peter I and Catherine - dug up and restored this ancient city.

One of the possible reasons for what happened could be the fall of a large asteroid into the Arctic Ocean. You can hear about this in this lecture of the "Tainam.net" project "Faroese astroblema. Star wound of the Apocalypse ":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v\u003dw4cnp1voABE

it is also possible that many mountain systems were formed during this cataclysm. Lake Baikal - too, because it is absent on ancient maps. And local rivers are depicted in sufficient detail.

This is how the Mediterranean Sea was formed, which then included the current Azov, Black and Caspian Seas. On the site of the modern Caspian Sea, a huge Caspian lowland was formed, the surface of which was almost 30 meters below the water level in the World Ocean. When the next rise of land began at the place of formation Caucasus mountains, The Caspian Sea was finally cut off from the ocean, and in its place was formed a closed closed body of water, which today is considered the largest inland sea on the planet. However, some scientists call this sea a giant lake.
The peculiarity of the Caspian Sea is the constant fluctuation of the salinity level of its water. Even in different regions of this sea, the water has different salinity. This was the reason that the animal classes of fish and crustaceans predominate in the Caspian Sea, which more easily tolerate fluctuations in water salinity.

Since the Caspian is completely isolated from the ocean, its inhabitants are endermic, i.e. always live in its water area.

The fauna of the Caspian Sea can be roughly divided into four groups.

The first group of animals includes the descendants of ancient organisms that inhabited Tethys about 70 million years ago. Such animals include the Caspian gobies (golovach, Knipovich, Berga, bubyr, pugolovka, Baer) and herring (Kessler, Brazhnikovskaya, Volga, puzanok, etc.), some molluscs and most crustaceans (long-sex crayfish, crustacean ortemia, etc.). Some fish, mainly herring fish, periodically go out to the rivers flowing into the Caspian for spawning, many never leave the sea. Gobies prefer to live in coastal waters, often found at river mouths.
The second group of animals of the Caspian Sea is represented by Arctic species. penetrated into the Caspian from the north in the postglacial period. These are such animals as the Caspian seal (Caspian seal), fish - Caspian trout, white fish, nelma. From crustaceans, this group is represented by the mysida crustaceans, similar to small shrimps, tiny sea cockroaches and some others.
The third group of animals inhabiting the Caspian includes the species that independently or with the help of humans migrated here from Mediterranean Sea... These are mollusks mitisyaster and abra, crustaceans - amphipods, shrimps, Black Sea and Atlantic crabs and some fish species: singil (ostronos), needlefish and Black Sea kalkan (flounder).

And, finally, the fourth group - freshwater fish that entered the Caspian Sea from fresh rivers and turned into sea or anadromous, i.e. periodically rising into rivers. Some of the typically freshwater fish also occasionally enter the Caspian. Among the fishes of the fourth group are catfish, pike-perch, barbel, red-lipped asp, Caspian vimbets, Russian and Persian sturgeon, beluga, stellate sturgeon. It should be noted that the Caspian Sea basin is the main habitat of sturgeon fish on the planet. Almost 80% of all sturgeon in the world live here. Longhorns and vimba are also valuable commercial fish.

As for sharks and other predatory and dangerous fish for humans, they do not live in the Caspian Sea-lake.