Horror in the Sochi rivers: the Black Sea trout was on the verge of extinction

Gennady, as far as he can remember, was fond of fishing. I picked up a fishing rod for the first time at the age of 7, since then I spend every free minute on the shore. And he notes that every year in the south of Russia there are more and more poachers, but, alas, fewer fish. He wrote about this more than once in his articles, of which he published more than 350 in various publications. Today is the very case when he again cannot be silent …

— Did the construction of the facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games really worsen the condition of the herd of the Black Sea sea trout?

– The deterioration of the local ecology has been monotonous and systematic for years. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Olympics are the main and only culprit of the impending environmental threat. Yes, she added problems, but the main culprit is a person, his principle is to live one day, without thinking about what we will leave behind.

Everyone knows that the main spawning rivers for trout are the Mzymta and Shahe in the vicinity of Sochi. Sport and amateur fishing is now prohibited on them, although there used to be fishing under licenses with certain restrictions. However, the current ban does not contribute to the conservation of sea trout in these rivers.

Have you seen the bed of the famous Mzymta River, along which the railway was laid to the Olympic venues in Krasnaya Polyana? Can you imagine how many natural spawning grounds of the Black Sea sea trout were destroyed by this construction? At the same time, a complete ban on fishing in the river remains, and no licensed fishing for you!

Or the situation on the Khosta River in the city of Sochi. Active construction is being carried out here, the development of untouched territories, a complete violation of the rules of the water protection zone … Rivers, large and small, flowing in the city, where roads are laid, do not just suffer. They are given to businessmen.

For them, the cleanliness of the rivers, the state of fish stocks are not in the first, not in the second, and not even in the third place! They refer to the water protection zone as to some attributes of the interior around the object. Which is being built, grows by leaps and bounds. They are only concerned that this very object is not damaged as a result of a sharp rise in water after heavy rains.

– What is happening right now in the channels of the Sochi rivers?

— Look at the rivers Kudepsta, Sochi, Khosta, Dagomys, for example. All of them are spawning for brown trout. Now pay attention to how many objects are built along their banks. These are car washes, construction bases, cafes, baths, barbecue houses and residential buildings, the walls of which are sometimes one meter from the river bank. As you can see, these are not just concrete fences that prevent the city from being flooded during periods of flooding.

Where do you think the technical water and sewerage from these new buildings goes? Or do you think that all these objects do not use water from the rivers for their internal needs?

One of my friends, an avid fisherman, advised me to see what is happening now in the bed of the Mzymta River in the city of Adler. Horror! Tractors, bulldozers working right in the riverbed! They scoop soil right out of the water!

Apparently, the damage that they caused to the river by the Olympic construction is not enough for people. They just decided to finish it off and destroy it completely!

– How are the relations between amateur fishermen and local authorities?

– As I said, local officials and legislators have achieved a complete ban on fishing. So that they do not have a “headache” from amateur fishermen.

– Sochi rivers are home to many different fish: trout, podust, chub … But the Black Sea sea trout is mentioned much less frequently. Tell us more about her.

– This is a wild salmon fish, it almost died out, it was not in vain that it was listed in the Red Book. In Moscow, in stores selling fish, you definitely can’t buy it. Of the wild salmon, there are usually Far Eastern salmon, such as pink salmon, chum salmon, and chinook salmon. All salmon sold are fish artificially bred and grown in cages. If nothing is changed, then the Black Sea sea trout as a species will disappear altogether.

– Well, how to save the trout? What do Sochi amateur fishermen themselves offer?

– It was possible, for example, to allow spinning and fly fishing on the Mzymta and Shakhe rivers using a single hook on the bait. Establish a rule: when catching a trout, the fisherman is obliged to release it into the wild. For the rest of the fish, introduce a strictly limited catch, with the “catch and release” principle as a priority. In case of violation of the rules – large fines and a long-term ban on the sale of such licenses.

This would be a civilized approach to the conservation of fish stocks in our rivers. Fishermen with licenses themselves would notify the fish inspection about the presence of poachers on the reservoirs. And even those in the presence of civilized fishermen would not carry out their predatory trade.

After all, what happens today? There are no amateur fishermen on the Mzymta and Shahe rivers. There are bans that poachers don’t care about. They know all the places where the foot of the fish inspection has not set foot. They set up nets there, dive at night with flashlights and underwater guns into deep pits where trout settle.

The upper reaches of the rivers are constantly visited by electric fishermen who knock out trout and juvenile trout there. They drive as high as possible into the mountains in UAZs. They fill backpacks full of fish and hand over the trout and other fish caught in this way to cafes and restaurants.

That’s where the big problem for these rivers is! Sochi fish inspectors, law enforcement officers and national park workers do not have an effective system to deal with such criminals. Such “moral freaks” (you can’t call them differently!) Have not yet died out, who fish with the help of bleach and other chemicals. They also have no control.

Or the extraction of spear-trout during spawning, “on a grater”, as local fishermen say. There are whole groups of such non-humans who know well the spawning points in the upper reaches of the rivers and from year to year do their dirty work.

In Russia, there is still no law providing for severe punishment for, say, electrolytics – in the form of large fines and long prison terms. Although such, so to speak, “fishing” should be qualified as a special serious crime, it leads to the total destruction of nature as a human habitat.

– Explain for the uninitiated, what is an electric fishing rod?

– It’s a kind of electric. The fish dies as a result of an electrical discharge. Previously, batteries for such a “fishing” were heavy and bulky, but now they are portable, which has greatly simplified the task for poachers. They give a discharge, the fish floats up belly up, and it is blown down by the current. And there, “fishermen” are waiting for her with a net where the “harvest” is harvested. All fish die, including fry.

For example, in Belarus, only one storage of an electric fishing rod is followed by an administrative punishment, and for the use – already a criminal one. The term of imprisonment depends on the size of the catch. We have a small administrative fine for him.

– You spoke about some underwater hunters, these ichthyanders, who do not hunt pearls, but sea trout that have come to spawn. Is there a fight going on with them?

– Yes, no, they don’t bother about this either, they, as you understand, don’t need any licenses. It’s even better for them that there are no fishermen nearby and no extra eyes on the river! It has come to the point that these “underwater hunters” post the results of their dastardly craft on social networks and brag to each other. Probably, such self-accusation should also be of interest to law enforcement agencies.

Here the Sochi fishermen ask themselves: on the one hand, the fish is being destroyed by construction and poachers at full speed. On the other hand, they ban fishing for amateur fishermen! Is this a civilized approach?

How can one explain the complete ban on amateur fishing in the Mzymta River and at the same time turn a blind eye, give permits for various work in line with heavy equipment and construction in the water protection zone? Construction reduces the fish stock at times! And fishermen with their fishing rods will catch a maximum of 10%! ..

But there is a complete ban on fishermen, and a green light for builders and merchants. Do officials who make such documents and decisions really care what their children and grandchildren will see in the future?

– Meanwhile, the country has a large program for the development of aquaculture, artificial breeding of fish …

Yes, we do it too. To some extent, this supports the herd of the Black Sea sea trout. Juveniles are reared and released into the sea and rivers. However, it is much weaker and survives worse, rarely reaches sexually mature sizes. In addition, as soon as these juveniles enter the sea, they are actively caught by local spinners. For this, too, there are no special fines, and no one controls the process.

There are other problems associated with aquaculture. Thus, cages where rainbow trout are grown are constantly torn, tens of tons of fish run free and enter all nearby rivers. This also harms the trout. Often, fishermen drag their trawls into the sea right at the mouths of the rivers. Someone began to give permission for the installation of fixed nets perpendicular to the shore. Sea trout inevitably get into them, going into the rivers along the coast.

— Are there any options for preserving local rivers and their inhabitants at all?

– I do not have ready-made recipes, but they certainly need to be sought and found. It may be worth setting up commercial fishing bases on the Mzymta and Shakhe rivers, as they did, for example, on the Kola Peninsula. For someone to be financially interested in getting more fish.

But first, the authorities must hold meetings with the same amateur fishermen, the public and listen to their proposals. Otherwise, we will have nothing to say to our descendants, those who will live here after us.

Comment of the administration of Sochi on the state of the fishing and fish farming industry in the city:

“There are more than 130 water bodies on the territory of Sochi: rivers, streams and streams. Of the 64 large rivers, 29 pose a risk of flooding to some extent. Measures taken in the city to prevent emergencies caused by river floods must be coordinated with the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Krasnodar Territory. Federal legislation makes it possible, at fixed periods that do not coincide with fish spawning, to clear excess bottom soil in potentially dangerous sections of rivers.

The treatment facilities of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise of Sochi “Vodokanal” undergo strict control of their work by Rospotrebnadzor and Rosprirodnadzor. The enterprise excludes the discharge of untreated wastewater into water bodies or onto the terrain. Employees of the enterprise, together with specialists from district administrations, regularly conduct raids in settlements along the coastline to prevent possible discharges of household water by household owners. The purity of the water is regularly checked by collecting analyzes at so-called control points.

In Sochi, the fish farming industry is represented by 4 organizations, the fishing industry – by 20 organizations. They, according to permits, are catching anchovies, red mullet, flounders, trevally, horse mackerel. The Adler Trout Breeding Plant is one of the largest enterprises in this industry in Russia. The company was founded in 1964 with the aim of reproduction and research of trout. The farm has a collection of the most common breeds. In addition, two own breeds of rainbow trout, Adler and Adler Amber, have been bred. Since 1998, trout have been grown here – Black Sea salmon, endemic to the Black Sea. In recent years, the plant annually releases up to 400,000 grown brown trout fry into the Sochi rivers. The results of systematic biological studies of large Sochi rivers into which fish are released testify to the purity of fresh water and its suitability for the successful restoration of the Black Sea salmon population.”