I just got these pics from (my friend and 30 year co-worker) Jeff Uebel. As we were walking around the streets of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, we spotted a strange looking vehicle.
On closer inspection we found it to be a rolling advertisement for “Tackle World.” I have no idea where the store is or whether there is such a store in Yuzhno.
They are definitely trying to pump up the sport fishing by international tourists. On the South half of the Island, they have pink, chum and masu salmon along with taimen and a variety of different char.
On the North half, there are also coho to be found along with the fish found on the south end.
I don’t think there is anyone in the game doing better than The Brick lately. Look at him with these two beauties from last week. He knows just where those bad boys are going to be laying more times than not. Hell, he even called my fish today. I mean right down to the hole.
He didn’t call the lure/jig though. I don’t think anyone could’ve. Nothing was working. That was a surprise to The Brick and will be for you too. Stay tuned because that is coming up.
Saving endangered salmon is a team sport that requires cooperation between wildlife managers and fishermen, conservationists and landowners — even countries. Now, in a bid to ensure the survival of salmon runs on the far side of the Pacific, U.S.-style conservation strategies are being exported to Russia’s Sakhalin Island.
“They have huge salmon runs, but also a growing population,” said Jeff Uebel, the natural resource staff officer for the Corvallis-based Siuslaw National Forest. “The population is concentrated in cities (and) is losing touch with nature.”
Uebel was part of a three-person delegation that spent a week this month on Sakhalin — a West Virginia-sized island situated north of Japan in the Russian Far East — working with the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative. The group also included Nina Savransky, an international programs specialist who works in the Forest Service’s Washington, D.C., office, and Dave Heller, an ex-Forest Service fisheries biologist who now runs an environmental consulting firm in Portland.
The trip was financed by the Wild Salmon Center, a Portland-based nonprofit working to protect salmon stocks throughout the Pacific Rim. The group has had projects on Sakhalin Island for nearly a decade and helped organize the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative.
According to Uebel, Sakhalin has massive runs of pink and chum salmon, both species that are declining in North American waters.
But the island’s native masu, or cherry salmon — which spend a long time rearing in rivers before swimming out to sea — are in trouble. Also threatened are the ocean-going whitespotted char and the taimen, the world’s largest salmonid fish.
Heavy logging has degraded salmon streams on parts of the island, Uebel said. Overfishing also is a problem.
“The fishing industry has very aggressive harvest programs and some hatchery programs,” Uebel said. “They also have a large problem with poaching. They’ve got good regulations in place, but very little enforcement.”
There’s also a massive offshore oil and gas boom, a potential threat to salmon in the area. But the Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., a major petrochemical consortium, has become a key funding source for salmon conservation efforts.
Just as in the Pacific Northwest, salmon are important both culturally and economically in eastern Russia. But the conservation movement is still in its infancy in the former communist nation. That’s where American-style conservation approaches come in.
The Siuslaw Basin Partnership — a coalition that includes the national forest and various public and private groups focused on enhancing Oregon’s Siuslaw River — has been working on Sakhalin Island since 2005.
Again, collaboration was the key. The partnership took money from an international prize awarded for its restoration efforts in Oregon and joined forces with the Wild Salmon Center to help launch local conservation efforts on the island.
Two years ago, Uebel — then a fisheries biologist with the regional Forest Service office in Portland — made his first trip to Sakhalin Island, where he helped set up watershed councils modeled on the volunteer groups that do much of the stream restoration work in Oregon.
The idea — in Russia as in the United States — was to bring together local stakeholders to forge a practical working relationship among all interested parties.
“It’s a collaborative effort,” Uebel said. “Watershed restoration has to be.”
The effort is clearly picking up steam. On his latest trip, Uebel and his colleagues met with members of the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative to help finalize plans for an ambitious wild salmon park.
The $8.8 million facility, jointly financed by the Wild Salmon Center and the Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., is being built at the confluence of the Lyotoga and Kraznidonka rivers. The park will include a museum and interpretive trail designed to educate visitors about the life cycle and importance of wild salmon. The project is scheduled to break ground this summer and should be completed next year.
“It’s a perfect opportunity to showcase a large river that’s host to several varieties of salmon, plus a tributary,” said Daniel Nelson, a member of the Wild Salmon Center’s Russian team. “It’s an opportunity to show what a watershed should look like.”
There are also educational programs in the schools modeled on curriculum developed in Oregon, and Uebel believes those efforts can play a key role in building public support for salmon restoration in Russia.
“There’s a real interest by the government in building a conservation effort and protecting fish,” Uebel said. “Certainly the teachers and schoolkids get it, so that’s a very hopeful sign.”
Masu, or cherry salmon — which spend a long time rearing in rivers before swimming out to sea — are in trouble. (photo courtesy wildsalmoncenter.org)
Premier PacNW steelhead rivers like this one are abundant in our region…..
I think about all the people that are in my life and I have nothing but fishing to thank for it. I have heard more stories from Sal about fish that I caught before I can even remember that when someone asks me how long I’ve been fishing….I simply say, ‘as long as I can remember’.
I’ve gone back to work in the same tackle shop that molded me into the angler I am today and I am grateful. Grateful for the knowledge. For the experiences. I can say that I got in on some fisheries with some legends in the industry and these guys taught me the ropes through my late teens and early twenties. Most of all they taught me humility lasts longer than one day on the river.
As I continue to sit here and think about what is the common bond I have with all of my fellow TeamSalmon members and Allaroundangler readers out there reading my blog I am struck in the head by recollections of rivers past and present…like an 8oz sinker on full cast. Rivers.
It’s always been about the rivers. Even as a fly fisherman for trout in my youth I preferred rivers and streams over lakes or the Ocean. I have always been drawn to other like-minded river anglers who seek the same feelings every time they step into their favorite creek.
I’ve got a lot of great people contributing to this website. I’m flattered and excited to see the next email I will get from one of you out there. I love the fact that a single river can become all of our common bonds. Amazing that we have a dozen or so to choose from within a day’s grip.
Here is the new movie I put together from MME’s day out on the water the other day. Thanks for bringing that data by on a flash drive so I could do this, Matt! Looks like a great time.
