CAN WE SAVE KAMCHATKA'S PRECIOUS SALMON?

By Sergey Vakhrin
President, foundation for the rescue of Kamchatka's salmon
Translated from russian by Peter S. Tsiorba

    The spawning salmon of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula have been preserved in their diversity as salmon have been preserved nowhere else in the world. Some years ago. North America's Columbia River was the world's greatest salmon river. Statistics show that more than 20 million salmon came home annually to spawn in the Columbia. Since then, the Columbia's wild salmon stocks have declined to some 250.000 fish. More than 100 fish hatcheries situated along the river are unable to reverse the situation. Moreover, artificial salmon reproduction is very costly. According to Bill M. Bakke, a leading American conservationist involved in protecting the Columbia River, millions of dollars have been spent on the construction and operation of fish hatcheries during the past century. Millions of U.S. dollars just to restore salmon!
    So what happened? After all, poaching is not an issue in the United States-at least not according to the Russian definition of poaching. The states are facing other challenges. Many lack the legislative basis necessary to enforce environmental issues on private land. Because of this, many Columbia River Basin areas have been clear-cut all the way to the stream banks; many have seen detrimental agricultural development on cleared lands. In order to regulate irrigation for the fields, and to generate cheap electricity, more than 100 dams have been erected. Many have cut off fish access to spawning streams. Some are still not equipped with any fish passage devices. These and many other factors related to industry and agriculture have wrought havoc in the basin of this once-great salmon river.
    Now Americans have thrown themselves into a crusade, spending huge amounts of money (unfathomable to modern-day Russians) to save salmon and their habitat. Budgets for these efforts can be expected to increase each year, as previous spending has brought little results, and wild stocks continue to decrease. This applies not only to the Columbia River, but to Alaskan rivers and hatcheries as well. Alaska, too, is largely free from die chief enemy of Russian salmon rivers: poachers.
The Wild Salmon Center     But even without poachers, a great deal of harm has been caused to Kamchatka salmon rivers. During the grand era of socialistic expansion, we not only met but exceeded fishing quotas. During this time, we inflicted serious harm to the two largest salmon river basins of the Kamchatka Peninsula: the Bolshaya and Kamchatka rivers. First, we clear-cut fir forests in the valleys of the Kamchatka River. The second and most devastating blow was dealt by owners of privatized lands. Lured by promising agricultural returns, diey destroyed hundreds of acres of spawning grounds. In the current state of Russian capitalism, these lands are now abandoned. Many precious species of salmon-such as chinook, sockeye, coho and chum-have significandy declined from these two watersheds. Who would believe that the Kamchatka River used to produce six times more salmon, and the Bolshaya River two times more, dian at present?
    In other words, we have acted-and continue to act-no differently than our American counterparts. In pursuit of some (such as cheaper electricity or potato crops) we continue to destroy die primary and highest value of our rivers. And we, too, have begun investing large sums of money toward restoration of what our own hands have destroyed in ignorance. However, if ignorance was our only problem, we might still have a chance to save our remaining treasures. The chief enemy to Kamchatka's salmon is not our ignorance, but human ingenuity and greed.
    In Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, we have encountered some small-scale poaching conducted by homeless and unemployed individuals simply trying to provide sustenance (we were told that minimum wage in Alaska is $4.50 per hour). What about Russia's unemployed, or those who are employed at $4.50 per day and may go without pay for months at a time? What alternatives do they have?
    According to figures presented by Russian poachers, a good poacher can make in excess of $30.000 in one season. No exaggeration. During a recent one-week survey of Kamchatka's rivers, Kamchatrybvod (Russia's federal fish management agency) inspectors found 54 barrels containing approximately 2.75 tons of caviar. What proportion of the actual take might that have been?
    Kamchatrybvod inspectors and experts estimate that during each season, they uncover 20-30 percent of blatant poaching, suggesting that actual amounts of poached caviar are three to five times higher than what is actually uncovered.
    Here are some additional statistics: During eight months in 1998, fisheries protection inspectors implicated 2,206 people in violations of 2,106 laws related to fishing. Predominantly, these violations occurred in the most densely populated, but practically fishless, southeastern region of Kamchatka. Most violators were residents of the region. Approximately 230 tons of fish was confiscated from poachers-the actual projected amount is no less than 1,102 tons. For comparison, commercial fish harvesting for the entire east coast of Kamchatka in 1998 was 7,165 tons. A total of 39.1 tons of caviar was confiscated from poachers. Official losses caused by poaching in Kamchatka have been calculated at 101,716,300 rubles, which means that actual losses caused by poachers exceed a half billion rubles. Enough statistics?
    Not every reader will agree with these figures, especially if familiar with the current realities of Kamchatka's salmon protection. I am convinced that, given current conditions, our fish protection agencies in Kamchatka are unable to monitor the situation. Now our fish protection agents cannot uncover even the 20-30 percent of poaching that previously was estimated with some accuracy. At one point there was some structure. Government fish protection inspectors planned and worked based on variables such as population density, total length of spawning rivers, and total area of spawning lakes to be protected by the designated agencies. Based on the responsibilities laid on the protection agency, they were provided with staff, inspectors, technical equipment and supplies, means of communication and everything else necessary.
    Today, due to administrative restructuring imposed by Moscow, Kamchatrybvod is left with 93 federal fish protection inspectors. It also must be noted that, during the 1998 salmon fishing season, a number of die inspectors were on vacation or sick leave at times. A more realistic number of inspectors present on the rivers during massive salmon runs was closer to 70.
    These 70 inspectors are to monitor 4,476 miles of coastline with its estimated 100 marine fishing sweep-nets;
    1,852 rivers with a combined length of 64,584 miles and nearly 500 fishing crews; and 16,019 lakes with a total area of 130,010 square miles (17,040 of which are categorized as fishing waters).
    This means that each inspector is placed in charge of more than 62 miles of coastline, 932 miles of river, and 228 lakes-a jurisdiction over territories die size of many small countries! To complicate the situation further, each inspector has to deal with the poor quality-and often utter absence-of roads in Kamchatka. An inspector's ability to get around directly correlates to his function in fish protection.
    According to the standards set by the Government Fisheries Committee of the Russian Federation, Kamchatka's territory must be protected by no less than 250 inspectors. Therefore, all previously mentioned statistics on poaching ought to be at least tripled. Then the more realistic damage caused to the salmon treasures of Kamchatka will lead us to very different numbers. The total harvest by poachers will not be 1.000 tons of salmon, but many thousands of tons.
    There are many areas on the peninsula, especially in upper spawning rivers, that fish protection inspectors cannot even access. Helicopters are unbelievably expensive-so much so that even older, less powerful and cheaper MI-2s are becoming out of reach.
    In the meantime, fish continue to swim upstream to their spawning places, directly into the hands of poachers. Then, in the fall, right before the snow, barrels of caviar will be smuggled out of hidden storage areas. And the salmon destruction by poachers will increase exponentially
The Wild Salmon Center     But this is not the end. Besides poaching, Kamchatka has commercial fishing. Regretfully, it is often criminal in nature. During the Soviet regime, the entire crew of fishermen went to jail for illegal caviar harvesting. During those years, that fishing crew was the main supplier of fish on the Kamchatka River. Today, dozens of fishing crews from various organizations are fishing in this same area. During early spring, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky's market is flooded with early spring chinook.
    Experts estimate that 25-35 percent of all fish harvested is channeled through the black market. Chinook fishing, for example, exceeds official limits by 3-400 percent. If during the Soviet regime poaching was commonplace, now its intensity is even higher, in a time when anything can be bought and sold. Any fish that can be converted into hard currency is channeled illegally, without documentation, receipts or records. That is true with every fishing crew. Marine fishermen speak out openly, stating, In 1998, nearly 100 fishing crews worked the coastline, and over 500 crews worked the rivers. During the Soviet regime, only 40 nets were worked, and areas where they were used numbered in the dozens-not in the hundreds, as at present. In addition, the rivers were under a single ownership, not dozens of owners such as during the present formation of Russia's capitalism. The conclusion is that official fish harvest statistics include only fishing controlled by fish protection inspectors, and, for reasons explained earlier, we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg. Yet, this iceberg tip represents 64,291,929 rubles as estimated by fish inspectors. What, then, is the true damage to the fish? How much fish is harvested officially? In 1998 alone,
    7.165 tons of fish were caught in the eastern region of Kamchatka, and nearly 130.000 tons (of which 121.254 tons consisted of pink salmon) were caught in western Kamchatka. Which means that nearly 8.818 tons of rare chinook, sockeye, coho and chum salmon have been harvested. And in 1999, pink salmon, which run every other year, will virtually disappear from western Kamchatka. Pink salmon fishing will remain only in eastern Kamchatka's Koryak Autonomous Region. Next year, poaching will unite its forces against our most precious and endangered species- Kamchatka's market, once again, will be flooded with illegal fish. And why not? Fish distribution and trade are not regulated. In order to sell vodka or tobacco products, which are controlled by government monopoly, a merchant must acquire a permit. Federal property, on the other hand-even poached endangered salmon-can be traded freely. Things have gotten so bad that even Kamchatka steelhead, protected by Russia's Red Book, are now sold on the black market. These are the events and conditions taking place in Kamchatka, where salmon runs are unmatched anywhere else in the world. How might Kamchatka's fish protection inspectors preserve these unique wild salmon stocks?
    As usual, Moscow is too busy to worry about its provinces. Recently, the United Nations listed Kamchatka's volcanoes as World Heritage sites. Isn't this an appropriate time to expand that list by including our planet's unique wild Kamchatka salmon runs? If we don't unite our international efforts in protecting this world heritage, it could soon disappear. The rate at which Kamchatka's salmon are being destroyed progresses exponentially, and Moscow continues to introduce new experiments into fish protection, putting inspectors through tests. Currently, Kamchatrybvod employees (as well as many others) are not paid for their work. Should inspectors risk their health and very lives protecting fish without compensation for their labor? Perhaps they will be left with no choice but to pick up a harpoon or net, and earn their bread by stocking up on caviar. Who, then, will be left to answer for Kamchatka's empty salmon rivers?

The Wild Salmon Center     The Foundation for the Rescue of Kamchatka's Salmon, based in Petropavlosk, Kamchatka, is dedicated to ecological education and strengthening efforts to prevent salmon overfishing and poaching. For more information, or to offer much-needed financial support, please contact the Pacific Environment and Resources Center (PERC), 144 Brodway, Suite 306 Oakland, CA 94612 (Tel: 510-251-8800 x 304; Fax: 510-251-8838). Checks should be made out to PERC, who will transfer the funds directly to the Foundation for the rescue of Kamchatka salmon.

   

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