I feel sorry for the fish...

In recent years, every spring there have been explosions on our rivers. The spectacle is certainly beautiful, and the ice crossings are being destroyed to prevent congestion during ice drift. But is it really necessary to do this? And what is more in this - harm and benefit?

If at the beginning of winter, before the opening of the ice crossing, almost the entire river in this area is drilled out and checked centimeter by centimeter, then in the spring no one conducts any research. It happens that there is an ice road and it’s already scary to walk on foot, everything is in thawed areas, lanes, but the order for the work is made, the money is paid, and explosions thunder all over the river... Meanwhile, all this costs quite a lot of money. Renting a helicopter costs 80 thousand rubles per hour, plus each take-off and landing is paid separately; the bombers are brought from Kuzbass - this is a salary, travel allowance, daily allowance... According to the most conservative estimates, the amount is close to a million rubles for the destruction of each crossing. Yes, if you give part of this money to the local chronically unemployed population, the men will smash all the ice into small crumbs with picks and hacksaws! And besides this, there are many ways to speed up the pull of ice.

As a result of the research, scientists have proven that an explosion of 6 kg of ammonite within a radius of 25 meters kills 100% of the fish. Moreover, the swim bladder of most of them bursts, and they do not float to the surface - it is impossible to know how many of them “sank” to the bottom.

At a distance of 100-200 meters, the fish is hit by a blast wave, but does not die immediately. At autopsy, she is found to have ruptured blood vessels and internal hemorrhages. Even though it’s “fish blood,” it’s a pity... But when carrying out blasting operations at crossings, much more powerful charges are used. Given that at this very time there is a mass migration of fish from wintering places, fry of autumn-spawning fish - muksun, nelma, and cheese - come down. These fry are simply an air bubble with an embryo inside, which is carried by the current. And they die even from a relatively small jump in external pressure. What can we say about “bombing”...

If you count the number of ice crossings on the Ob, you will get an almost dead zone with a length of 500 kilometers! And this happens from year to year... The excuses of the bombers that first a small explosion is produced that scares away the fish are, to say the least, groundless. During mass migrations, fish have no sense of fear at all. I somehow had to be present at the destruction of a real ice jam. Boxes of explosives were dropped from a helicopter all day long, explosions followed one after another, dead fish were carried along the clear water below the jam, and live ones still climbed there...

What kind of revival and preservation of the fish stocks of the nurse-Obi can we talk about in this case?

Of course, it’s easier to blame everything on poachers, or even just peasants who set up a couple of nets to feed their family.

In one place we raise the fry and release them into the river, in another we kill them. So maybe it’s first worth weighing what is more in our actions - benefit, excessive reinsurance or the enormous harm that we bring to the house in which we live, to the river that has fed more than one generation?