Within the project PTF «Assessment of production, genetic, chemical and microbiological parameters for the development of recommendations for the certification of Artemia cysts in water reservoirs of Kazakhstan» of the budget program «Complete assessment of the state of fish resources and other hydrobionts of the main fishing water reservoirs of Kazakhstan and the development of evidence-based recommendations for their sustainable use», according to the schedule, the employees of the laboratory of hydrobiology and hydroanalysts made a trip to the bitter-salty Raiskye lakes of the Aksu district of the Almaty region in order to collect primary material. During the business trip, sampling was carried out for future hydrochemical, hydrobiological (phytoplankton, zooplankton, zoobenthos), genetic, biochemical studies. 

The Raiskye lakes are a group of bitter-salty lakes formed in a wide valley to south of the Balkhash lake between the Karatal and Aksu rivers. The concentration of minerals in these natural reservoirs is so high that the density of water exceeds the density of the human body, i.e. it is impossible to drown in them, and this special feature of the hydrological and hydrochemical regime is favorable for the habitation of the branchial crustacean of the genus Artemia, which was recorded by the expedition team in all the surveyed reservoirs.