RUSSIA: In Russia's Far East region of Kamchatka, officials struggle to fight illegal red caviar trade

Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula is one of the last truly wild places left on the planet, but its unique environment is under threat. Nine time zones away from Moscow, the sparsely populated region has benefited little from Russia's current economic growth. To cope with the widespread unemployment and poverty, the locals have turned to salmon poaching. Empty apartment buildings and abandoned ships dot the coastline of the wind-swept town of Oktyabriski on the southwestern tip of the Kamchatka peninsula. Just like elsewhere in Russia, many locals lost their jobs after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. With the onset of market reforms, more than half of the town's fish processing plants could not compete and had to close down. Many people left for bigger cities, while the ones who stayed behind had to find ways to make ends meet and many turned to harvesting one of the most abundant resources --- salmon and its precious red caviar. "People are in such a difficult situation that they are forced to do this [poaching],'' said Andrei Bondarenko, deputy mayor of the Ust Bolsheretsky district. "The locals have already said that the government forbids them to fish. But these people have to somehow survive! And so they fish illegally, or in other words, poach.'' While native Pacific salmon runs have declined or even disappeared in most parts of North America and Japan, tens of millions of Pacific salmon return each year to Kamchatka to spawn in its many free-running rivers. Scientists estimate one-third of all the Pacific salmon spawn originate in Kamchatka. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union, poaching of salmon and the trade in salmon caviar has become rampant, and now threaten the existence of the fish. Scientists say a few of the peninsula's rivers are already depleted, while others are at risk. The Kamchatka government enforces strict laws to regulate salmon fishing, but in an area where taiga and tundra stretch for hundreds of kilometres, enforcing the law is difficult. During spawning season state fishing agency patrols regularly find piles of dead salmon along the river banks. The fish have been left rotting by poachers who seek only to extract the pricey eggs from their stomachs. While much of the poaching is carried out by organised crime groups who can make millions of dollars of profit, officials say poverty drives an increasing number of desperate villagers to take part in the hunt. "There are many children from poor families out fishing,'' said Denis Kim, an expert at the Kamchatka state fishing agency. "They do so to make money, but not so that they can then party and get drunk, but because they need money to help support their families.'' In order to avoid the draconian penalties for poaching, poor families send their children. According to Russian law, children under age 14 cannot be prosecuted. Sergei, 13, and his friend Alexei, also 13, are examples of this new trend. During their long summer holiday the two boys travel to one of the region's salmon-rich rivers. Using a simple fishing rod, the two can make enough money to feed their families for months during the bleak winter months. "You can make more money from the caviar than the fish itself,'' said Sergei. "You can sell it raw, or you can salt it and sell it and get more for it. Some people make as much as 100,000 rubles (approx 3,000 euros) in a summer.'' To discourage young people from becoming poachers, some schools in the area now offer courses to teach about the environmental and biological importance of salmon. The classes are part of a two-year United Nations sponsored pilot project. If successful, the course will be offered at high schools throughout Russia's Far East. "We are sponsoring these courses in schools throughout the region because poaching among children has become a serious problem since the economy collapsed [after the fall of the Soviet Union],'' said Margarita Kulakova, Chief specialist at the regional state fisheries agency. "And since the law doesn't allow for the prosecution of children under 14, fishing inspectors have no way to stop those children who are poaching, and they must let them go. Therefore, unfortunately, adults often send out their children.'' Besides being a vital part of Kamchatka's fishing industry, the salmon runs also support dozens of other animal species, including brown bears, sea lions and sea eagles. Salmon protection, therefore, is a key challenge in order to preserve Kamchatka's precious and unique natural environment.

ITN Source | November 18, 2006

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