Programs
Notes from KhabarovskNews & Program Updates
August, 2005
Greetings from Khabarovsk! We just returned home from the expedition, and I'd like to share some quick thoughts on our trip to the Samarga.
The trip went very well. We had great weather, great fish sampling and snorkeling, and a fun group of Russians and Americans. There were a total of 8 people on the trip:
- Dave Heller, US Forest Service
- Samantha Chilcote, Flathead Lake Biological Station
- Dave Martin and Nicole Portley, Wild Salmon Center
- Anatoli Semenchenko, TINRO Center
- Sasha Semenchenko, Ksenia Semenchenko, Dmitry Sidorov, Far East State University
From the air, the winding flood plane and untouched landscape of the Samarga Valley spreads out in all directions.
Looking up a large tributary of the Samarga.
We were dropped by helicopter just downstream from the Pukhi River, a major tributary of the Samarga. We spent the afternoon there preparing for the trip, and started the float the next morning. We did an average of 2-3 sample sites each day. This included Anatoly's usual seining and hook and line sampling, snorkeling surveys by Sam and Nicole (who are now known as the Snorkel Twins), along with macro invertebrate sampling by two specialists.
For most of us, this was the first chance to see the Samarga and appreciate the challenges and opportunities working here present. I think I can say for all the foreigners that the trip was magical. It is a rare chance to experience such a wild place. For me the trip was also a chance to learn a great deal about salmon and the shifting habitat mosaic. I got to do my first snorkeling (thank you Sam for bringing the extra mask and snorkel!) and was really able to see a productive salmon river in action. Nicole showed a lot of initiative in working with Sam to learn to identify fish and help with sampling. Dave Heller did a fantastic job identifying likely lenok habitat and landing lenok and grayling for analysis. We saw hundreds of herons, many osprey and a few stellar eagles. And more juvenile masu that anyone (except Anatoli) imagined. Surprisingly, we saw very little wildlife, although I suspect that with the active hunting along the river the big animals might stay away.
Sam, Dave Martin and Nicole on the banks of the Samarga following snorkel surveys.
Sam quizzes Nicole on fish identification.
The trip was not without its excitement. We received some inaccurate information from a colleague in the village of Agzu and ended up going left when we should have gone right, and lost over a day getting rescued from the trap when our channel turned out to be clogged with a series of log jams. Luckily, having the satellite phone meant we could call Agzu for a rescue, rather than facing a daunting trail blaze and portage.
All throughout the trip, we had productive conversations around the campfire about the Samarga and what we could do to protect and study it better. On the last day, we had strategy meeting where we identified some preliminary conservation and research priorities for the stretch of river we floated. This includes two active evulsion zones on the main stem, and three tributaries that will be impacted by roads and logging in the first years of the logging project.
Next steps:
- Obtain maps and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) information on road network, logging plans etc. to do more analysis.
- Sam Chilcote will prepare a report for Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS).
- Dave Heller will prepare a trip report for US Forest Service and update Lara from International Programs prior to the Kamchatka Peninsula visit by USFS Chief Bosworth.
- Wild Salmon Center will develop a combined report, and work with members of the Samarga NGO coalition to include our recommendations in the common report to Terneiles Logging. Below you will find the Executive Summary that Nicole Portly has compiled.