Programs
Wild Salmon Center Leads Effort to Save One of Pacific's Most Productive Salmon RiversNews & Program Updates
July - August, 2004
Governor Mashkovtsev of the Kamchatka Oblast (Regional) Administration signed a decree indicating his official support for the creation of a 544,000 acre, headwaters-to-ocean, salmon refuge on the Kol River, located along the southwest side of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Wild Salmon Center identified the Kol River as significant because it contains all six native Pacific salmon species: chinook, coho, sockeye, chum, pink, and Asian masu salmon, as well as steelhead, rainbow trout, Dolly Varden char, and white-spotted char.
"The Kol may be the first whole-river refuge created specifically to protect wild salmon and their environment," states Wild Salmon Center President, Guido Rahr. "This refuge will serve as the centerpiece to an international, cooperative, conservation effort between the Wild Salmon Center, the Kamchatka Wild Fishes and Biodiversity Foundation (WFBF), the UNDP, Moscow State University (MGU) and our other Russian partners. We’ve been working together for over five years to save this amazing place."
The territory of the proposed Kol River Salmon Refuge includes no human settlements and is extremely productive, with annual runs of over five million fish. Besides salmon, the refuge will safeguard Kamchatka brown bears, snow sheep, Steller’s sea eagles, vast tracts of waterfowl habitat, and dozens of other species that rely on an ecosystem supported by the salmon lifecycle.
"Because of its pristine condition and salmonid biodiversity, the Kol River Salmon Zakaznik (refuge) promises to be a world-class research site," states Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev, Executive Director of the Wild Fishes and Biodiversity Foundation. "Scientists from around the world already visit our established biostation to study salmon ecology and conservation in an undamaged salmon river. Of course, we have an enormous amount of work ahead to achieve our goals. Working with the Wild Salmon Center and scientific organizations, we will prepare a master plan for operation of the refuge. This will require an inventory of species, discussions with local inhabitants of the surrounding area about traditional uses of the refuge, and a plan for the administration and protection of the refuge."
WFBF and the Wild Salmon Center have hosted scientists and researchers at the Kol River Biostation, located within the proposed Kol River Salmon Refuge, since 2002. The biostation serves as a "base camp" for international researchers specializing in salmonid ecosystems. It operates under a 49-year lease issued by the Russian government and will become an integral part of the greater Kol River Salmon Refuge.