There is nothing to catch

On Sakhalin, Putin's season is now. The day before, environmentalists and experts demanded that the authorities not open it, indicating a catastrophic reduction in the last years of the pink salmon population - one of the most valuable species of Pacific salmon. But they did not listen to the words of experts. The season was opened, and it turned out that this year there is practically nothing to catch in the Sakhalin rivers and bays. At the same time, a rare fish, which is now still approaching rivers for spawning, continue to intercept the nets of fish -industrial enterprises and a network of poachers. Experts say that the population of pink salmon on the island is undermined by the incompetence of officials and the greed of fish industry.

Poronai is the largest Sakhalin River. In honor of it, the district center is named - Poronaysk. Every year, thousands of people from various regions of the country come here for salmon Putin. Many guess a vacation for July - August, when salmon enters Poronai.

For the season, I get as much as the season as for the entire academic year at school. Repair in the apartment, car, payment of studies at the University of my daughter - I do all this for Putin's money

- I get as much as for the season on red fish as for the entire academic year at school. Repair in the apartment, car, payment of studies at the University of my daughter - I do all this for Putin's money. You can earn 300 thousand, or even more. All my friends are in one way or another on a salmon. Whoever goes to the fish processor, who buys the caviar and resells later, ”says the teacher of one of the schools of the Smirnykhovsky district, who asks not to name his name.

But good earnings are possible if only the fish has gone. Friends from Nevelsk - Alexei Ikhosnikov and Alexander Simbukhov were not lucky.

People came to earn money, and in the end you will also have to get into debt to return home

- In two weeks they did not see a single tail. There are no fish, they were waiting for it every day. And I have two small children, money is needed. After Porona, I went to the west coast of Sakhalin, in the village of Chekhov, I thought, maybe there would be fishing there. But nothing there. Okay, I returned to Nevelsk, and with us in Poronaysk there were guys from Smolensk. I don’t know how much, but more than a dozen. The tickets for Sakhalin were paid to them, and who will send them back? Well, if a company, but they can throw it. People came to earn money, and in the end, they will also have to get into debt to return home. Many still hope for fish, sit on the fishing camps, well, at least they feed there, ”says Alexei Operats .

Fish -industrial enterprises annually hire Putin, according to various estimates, from 3.5 thousand to 5 thousand seasonal workers. This year, fish producers, as usual, brought people to the camps (camps on the coast or river where fishermen live). But very soon the fishermen began to move. There are no fish, and few people believe in the fact that it will suddenly appear.

- With pink salmon, everything is not just bad, but catastrophically bad. She is not at all. There are no fish even on traditionally rich rivers, such as Anna, or firce. By the way, there is a fishing factory that produces a frying rosper in a firce, but there is no more salmon, ”says Dmitry Lisitsyn Ecological Vakhta, the head of the Ecological Watch.

The authorities have not yet commented on the intermediate results of Putin, but the numbers are much more eloquent than any words - according to the beginning of August, only 7.3 thousand tons of red fish were caught in the Sakhalin region. Last year, 28.6 thousand tons were caught in this period. Moreover, Putin of that year was already recognized as "catastrophically unsuccessful." For Putin 2017, you will have to look for a new epithet. The forecast for this year is 32.3 thousand tons, although earlier the catch was considered a disaster even in 100 thousand tons.

The extraction grew because the number of non -seizures exhibited in the region has doubled against the Soviet period and reached 800 - that is, the entire coast was blocked by networks

- What is happening now with pink salmon? In the beginning and mid-2000s, its number was quite high. Then officials of Rosrybolovstvo, Sakhalinrybvoda and other relevant departments attributed successes to themselves, their skillful management. But it was not so. The prey grew because the number of nets exhibited in the region has doubled against the Soviet period and reached 800 - that is, the entire coast was blocked by nets. In the wake of euphoria from the fact that there are a lot of fish, officials also began to introduce the so -called fish -based barriers (Ruza) on the rivers. They blocked the mouths with them, the fish stopped going to spawning. All this led to the fact that the reproduction of pink salmon has practically stopped, - says Expert Alexander Shubin , who worked for thirty years as a senior researcher at the Laboratory of the dynamics of the number of salmon of Sakhniro.

Ecologists have long been fighting against the installation of the so -called ruzes on Sakhalin. But the authorities claim that fish -accounting barriers (netting the mouth) are needed to calculate the spawning of the fish, and in addition, they allegedly save the rivers from the "flavor" when, having humped into the rivers on spawning, the pink salmon dies, not having time to relative.

- The harm from such networks is much higher than the harm from hypothetically possible flare. We have long warned that the Russian Ruza could lead to a fall in the number of wild salmon, because in fact, fish industries used them as a predatory fishing agent. And in the end, there were cases when the spawning ground was filled with only 20%, and the ruz was put on it - supposedly “saving from the flare,” says Dmitry Lisitsyn.

In the Gulf of Aniva, according to ecologists, spawning grounds in recent years have been filled with only 3.5% of the norm. For years due to predatory production through Ruzov, the fish could not go to spawning. As a result, there is nothing to catch now. In the old years, 44 enterprises worked on the Gulf coast. Today there are 5 left. Everyone else closed.

The trouble is that we have whole villages and cities lived at the expense of fishing. Starodubskoye with his fishing room, Dolinsk, Makarov, Poronaysk. What else is there besides fish? Nothing

- To equip a camp with one two -kilometer net, you need to invest approximately 15-17 million rubles. This is a technique, fuel, equipment, a salary of workers ... In order to recoup these costs, a minimum of 300 tons of fish must be caught by one net. I don’t know who caught so much this year. In the north, in the Smirnykhovsky district, they took tons of 100 per nets, and this is still a good catch in the current times. The trouble is that we have whole villages and cities lived at the expense of fishing. Starodubskoye with his fishing room, Dolinsk, Makarov, Poronaysk. What else is there besides fish? Nothing. Previously, fishing gave 54% of the income of the Anivsky district, and now the municipality has lost this money almost completely, ”complains the fish manufacturer, a member of the Sakhalin fish industry , Anatoly Kobelev .

Today, according to experts, wild salmon on Sakhalin will only save the ban on fishing while the rigid protection of spawning grounds. It must be introduced for several years. Otherwise, the situation will become generally irreversible. In early June, the Scientific Council of the Sakhalin Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (Sakhniro) insisted on closing the bays for fishing this season. For a month, a commission for the extraction of anadromic species of fish (those that spawn in rivers, and live in the sea, include salmon) under the government of the Sakhalin Region, which is authorized to regulate all issues of red fish production, postponed the discussion of the issue of bays. And on June 29, the deputy head of Rosrybolovstvo, Peter Savchuk, recommended that the fishing be blocked in patience and aniva. Despite the warnings of biologists, fishing began. Sakhalin officials did not object to Moscow.

The fact that the obviously failed Putin in 2017, despite all the warnings of ecologists, was nevertheless opened, speaks of the possibilities of people who have broken this decision. And this is not surprising - almost all the large states in the Sakhalin region are knocked out precisely on the fish. Thanks to her, the businessman Oleg Kan close to the governor Oleg Kozhemyako became the oligarch. Fishing made a modest Kuril serviceman Alexander Verkhovsky as a senator and one of the richest people of the Far East.

Our fish farm from Rosrybolovstvo in Moscow to its local territorial bodies on Sakhalin is controlled by illiterate and unprincipled people

-Salmon is a federal resource, first of all, the federal authorities manage it-the Sakhalin-Kuril Office of Rosrybolovstvo, the Sakhniro Institute, Sakhalinrybvod. It is their leaders who are guilty in the current state of affairs. And although not so long ago in all departments the chapters were replaced, new people came, but the attitudes remained the same: to catch, catch and catch. And there is nothing to catch for a long time. Our fishing farm from Rosrybolovstvo in Moscow to its local territorial bodies on Sakhalin is ruled by illiterate and unprincipled people, ”says Alexander Shubin.

The authorities, however, offer the situation not to dramatize and claim that the disappearance of pink salmon is natural.

- There is reason to think that we approached the change of cycles - for the first time in 25 years in our waters, instead of salmon, Sardine Ivasi and mackerel began to approach in a large volume. - says Deputy Head of the Fisheries Agency of the Sakhalin Region, head of the department of water bioresources Sergey Om.

If the theory that salmon and Sardine Ivasi in 20–25 years simply replace each other, is true, then it is not clear, ecologists say, why do these laws act only on Sakhalin, and do not apply to Kamchatka? There are salmon catches this season are close to record.

Sakhalin red fish in the previous "productive" years gave up to 41% of the total catching salmon in Russia. Not so long ago, so many pink salmon were caught in Sakhalin that pensioners, veterans and other low -income residents were handed out for free. This year it is not so easy to buy a pink salmon even in Sakhalin stores. And she went up in price in the region for a year two and a half times - a kilogram of fresh pink salmon now on Sakhalin costs from 160 to 200 rubles. And apparently, the nonsense on the island threatens to drag on.