There is little or no evidence to support that Clupeonella cultriventris has the potential for significant environmental impacts if introduced to the Great Lakes. It dominates pelagic fish communities in the Volga and Sheksna reservoirs (Slynko et al. 2002). The dominance of C. cultriventris in the Volga may have suppressed native coregonid populations (Mordukhai-Boltovskoi 1979b; Ricciardi and Rasmussen 1998). Introduced in early 1960’s and 1970’s, C. cultriventris became superdominant (65-99% of catch) in the Ukranian Dneprodzerzhinsk and Kremenchug reservoirs, replacing bleak (Alburnus alburnus) and common roach (Rutilus rutilus) and have maintained dominant population levels for at least 40 years (Tereschenko et al. 2015). Clupeonella cultriventris may compete with other planktivorous pelagic fish if it attains a large population in the Great Lakes, similar to the effects of the already established Alewife (Ricciardi and Rasmussen 1998). In locations where C. cultriventris is very abundant, its diet is similar to the diets of native species, with a feeding similarity index greater than 50% (Kiyashko et al. 2007). However, where this species is less numerous, its feeding similarity with native species is less than 40%.
There is little or no evidence to support that Clupeonella cultriventris has the potential for significant socio-economic impacts if introduced to the Great Lakes.
Clupeonella cultriventris is a known host to Anisakis schupakovi parasite which can cause anisakis disease in humans who consume undercooked and infected fish (Abdyekova et al. 2020).
Clupeonella cultriventris has the potential for moderate beneficial impact if introduced to the Great Lakes.
This species is one of the most abundant fish in the Caspian Sea, is a commercially valuable species (Fazli et al. 2007), and is preyed on by commercially valuable fish such as sturgeon and salmon (Karimzadeh 2011). Lake sturgeon occurs in the Great Lakes and is listed as threatened in Michigan (Roth et al. 2013). However, increasing the amount of food available for lake sturgeon may not contribute to their conservation; they are threatened due to overfishing and declining habitat quality rather than the lack of food. In addition, the Lake Sturgeon is a benthic feeder (Hayes and Caroffino 2012), so there is a possibility that it will not feed on the pelagic C. cultriventris. Native fishes in the Great Lakes (i.e. pike Esox lucius) may use C. cultriventris as forage fish, but the extent to which is unknown (Gerasimov et al. 2018).
It is an important source of protein and income for people living near the Caspian Sea, and is smoked and readily available at fish markets (Karimzadeh et al. 2010; Faralizadeh et al. 2016). Clupeonella cultriventris is relatively difficult to eat fresh, as it oxidizes quickly and has many small bones and scales. However, it is highly valuable for prepared commercial food and animal feed due to its high gel strength, protein content, and amino acids, and can be sold as surimi, burgers, cutlets, and sausages (Shabanpour et al. 2015). A study of food products made with C. cultriventris revealed that there is no risk of heavy metal contamination (Dadar et al. 2017; Sobhanardakani et al. 2018).
The intestines of C. cultriventris contain concentrations of trypsin similar to other less abundant fish in the Ponto-Caspian region. Trypsin is an enzyme used in cheese ripening, meat flavoring and tenderizing, and cell culturing for diabetes therapies, making them a valuable species to harvest for its extraction (Zamani et al. 2017).
Their flesh is broken down via hydrolysis and is a novel source of antioxidative peptides, proteins and amino acids that can be used as dietary additives to increase human health and the quality of animal feed (Hosseini et al. 2018; Mahdabi et al. 2018). The flesh can also be used to generate antimicrobial and antihypertensive agents as food additives (Qara and Nafaji 2018).