Moscow State University The Conservation Angler
INTERNATIONAL RUSSIAN-USA PROJECT “KAMCHATKAN STEELHEAD. THE STUDY AND CONSERVATION OF THE RED DATA BOOK SPECIES” YEAR 2021, Mission XXII The Interim Report on the results of the joint Russian-American combined anti-poaching and scientific expedition of 2021 year fall season
By Principal Investigator:
Moscow State University Professor Kirill V. Kuzishchin
Main responsible research personnel:
Moscow State University Senior research scientist Marina A. Gruzdeva
Moscow – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – Edmonds, WA 1
2021
Principal Investigator:
Moscow State University Professor Kirill V. Kuzishchin
Main responsible research personnel:
Moscow State University Senior research scientist Marina A. Gruzdeva
Enforcement personnel:
Authorized Fish Policeman Aleksander S. Loginov Affiliated official Fish Inspectors Aleksander A. Andrukhin Dmitry S. Navrotskiy
1. Introduction, main goal, and particular tasks of the 2021 season. Two last years we all live under strict limitations caused by pandemic situation from CovidSars-19 - and our Project was not exception – we were faced with the hard task how to provide progress for the steelhead study and protection and not to interrupt our efforts. The most hard time was in 2020 when we had to execute our tasks with a very small group. Likely in the hard 2020 three steelhead stocks in the North-West of Kamchatka were under the care of sentinels. The year 2021 at first looked same hard and up to the end of the summer it was no clear how to plan the fall activity. There were still many official and bureaucratic limitations and bans that created for us tough time to combine opportunities and abilities. A big fortune for us were to overcome the problem of between-countries visits, in a given circumstances of consular operations and visa applications. Because we had a number of devoted sponsors on our panel, who are interested in the long-term cooperation with KSP, we had a number of anglers who had a 3-year visas for visiting of Russian Federation. That was a very good basis to realize the expedition plans of year 2021. Finally, eleven sponsors came to Kamchatka with one TCA representative; also, there were seven Russian sponsors, thus the expedition team consisted of eighteen anglers. It was quite a moderate presence on the rivers compared with the normal years, but it was enough to provide a full-scale research and anti-poaching activity in the field. Our efforts to organize expeditions every year has the highest priority to monitor and protect unique steelhead stocks in three rivers of North-West Kamchatka. From year to year, we are realizing that those stocks (with some others in the rivers to the south of our region) are the last of their race that have natural structure and inhabiting pristine environment. So, we have two main objectives for each expedition: 1) to provide the presence of expedition with the enforcement support to wash away poaching and 2) to provide data collection for estimating of the modern status of the stocks. We already have enough experience to ensure, that expedition “in being” is a robust factor that preventing poacher’s rides to the rivers. Many years we are pushing the rumors between locals that there is a Fish Police officer in the camps and it is a high chances for poachers to get in a big trouble in case if they even touch a specimen of endangered species. So, just a presence of our team already means that most of the steelhead have entered the river, have a high chances to escape nets and to survive to the spawning time next spring. 2
Also, we know for sure that the status of all three stocks and main biological attributes of steelhead from Utkholok, Kvachina and Snatolvayam rivers demonstrated long-term and shortterm changes, and between-years comparison showed that in some years the changes in the main biological features is under the dramatic change. It is highly likely that the observed change is the reaction on the populational level on the warming of the North Pacific that we see over the last 20 years. So, as far it is possible that revealed changes in Kamchatkan steelhead is an aftershock to the global warming process, it is obvious that precise monitoring is urgent objective to come to understanding of what kind of trends we see in the nature. Basing on the obtained data we can have a chance to predict the fate of the steelhead stocks and elaborate more effective efforts for conservation of diamond of the whole Pacific Rim – wild steelhead of Kamchatka. Basing on the objectives, the main goal of the 2021-Expedition was to provide a robust protection of steelhead in three rivers and collect standard set of samples that will allow evaluating the modern status of the named steelhead populations. The particular tasks of the project in 2021 include the following major issues: 1. To obtain data on the run timing and make expert estimation of the relative abundance in three rivers, within-river distribution and to evaluate the risks for fish in the fall time in given conditions and gather the data for the forecast how the fish could overcome the winter season. 2. Collect size-weight data, scales, define the sex of fish to look after life history variations within the population. 3. Provide precise patrolling of the rivers in the aim to detect and stop poaching of steelhead in the most sensitive period of the life span in the rivers. 4. To put the enforcement efforts to the poachers in case of the poaching event up to arresting procedure. 2. Preliminary activity In 2020 when we were faced to the problem of modest expedition there was crucial to do our best to prevent poaching rather than fight with poachers on the rivers. That is why last year we put a lot of efforts for publicity about our presence on the rivers and strong will to fight with poachers. As far as this year we were back to our “normal” field plan, when we will have everyday presence on quite a long sections of the river and Fish Police officer in the camps, we made little less public activity between locals. There was one more reason for it – the rumors about full-scale expedition spread between local people very quickly. Our inside information showed that potential poachers were confident about KSP expedition in late August. Hard to tell about the source of the information for sure, but we see here a good sign – nevertheless how poachers got confident about our plans - but ruining the plans of poachers’ time ahead is additional support for our conservation activity. There is also one more important confidential info about poaching – while local poachers know very well the dates of the beginning of the expedition, they had no idea when we will finish field works. That was also a positive factor, because poacher’s ride to rivers need in preparation and it is not so easy to do at the edge of autumn and winter. Additional good issue for steelhead. At the same time, we made our departure to the rivers on ATVs very public and “loud” everybody to know that our plans not changed and steelhead sentinels are going to their destinations. We get confident, that a small team of poachers that was focused on coho salmon somewhere at the mouth of the Utkholok River, left the area at the day when we started our trip from the Esso. 3
As far as this year all major member of the expedition had unique skills for anti-poaching scouting, that we gained last year, there was no big necessity to organize additional lessons. But the Fish Police Officer Anatoliy Loginov, who was for the first time with us, made a test for all of us to be sure that we know what to do in case if we should do ourselves any kind of rapid antipoaching actions without Officer. Between the members of our team, we had two affiliated inspectors with the special temporal mandate – Aleksander Andrukhin (Big Sasha) and Dmitry Navrotskiy. The science team, as in the previous years, was of two authorized MGU scientists – Kirill Kuzishchin and Marina Gruzdeva. So, to the September, 15 all the team and camp equipment were ready, along with the PR actions, aimed at local villages Esso, Sedanka, Tigil and Ust-Khairuzovo. 3. Transportation and logistics overview on arrival on the rivers. As far as in 2021 we had sponsor-based program, we were back to our usual logistic plans, using helicopters as a main instrument to get to the distant steelhead pools. But as usual, to set up the camps we need to send a constructing team ahead camp to be ready. The difference with the previous years was that science team – Kirill Kuzishchin and Marina Gruzdeva went to the field with the front-line forces. The aim was to have a scout group that would be able to patrol the river from the very beginning. So far, the anti-poaching activity started at the moment when the first ATV-cargo truck left Village of Esso. In 2021 we run a usual practice when 2 ATV are bringing all camp equipment, our 4-wheeler Ranger (for Kvachina Camp) and main camp staff and there was 3rd ATV that we loan at the Sedanka Village to bring firewood for the whole period (fig 1, 2). The way was quite comfortable, but quite long because of endless small breakdowns of all three ATVs, mainly because of tractor’s track. Thereafter the way to the field took 2 nights and 3 days, which was longer than we expected. There was not any other thing to do (besides repair tracks) but to watch the landscapes and it was quite a surprise to not see much wildlife. Everybody, including locals from the Sedanka village notices very few ptarmigan in the open areas and ducks on the tundra lakes. Perhaps the reason is in a very few berries this year.
Figure 1. ATV at the machine court in the Anavgay village, ready to go for field. One can see 4-wheeler Ranger on the roof. 4
Figure 2. The KSP-2021 caravan approaching the steelhead rivers, about 60 km to the Kvachina River. Not only birdwatching was the outcome of the long road, but there was also one useful observation. This year our caravan took a different road from Sedanka village to Kvachina, and this road crossed the Snatolvayam River in its middle part. And we had some time to look at the river at the sections where we did not fish because of long distance from our routine pools in the Lower Part. At the first glance, the section near the ATV crossing looks great, even at September, 17-18, when there was a baseflow and very low river stage (fig. 3). But even at the period of low river stage the section looked very attractive for angling because of nice riffle-pool structures, very good flow (!) and bottom structure – pebbles of 2-3 inch with no mud in the bars. Moreover, at the time when we saw it the section looked even more attractive, than our traditional sections in the lower parts of both Kvachina and Snatolvayam.
Figure 3. The Snatolvayam River at the Upper ATV crossing. Nice places to watch, very attracting tail-out with perfect flow at depth. River is narrow, about 16-18 m in width but deep enough to provide a move of anadromous fish through the riffles. The water’s color is brown-tea, as in the Lower section. 5
The locals (first nation) who were with us told a story that in the past there was poaching for steelhead in this place in the late fall, somewhen in November, before ice appear. Also, there are a rumors that steelhead reach this places even in early October, especially in the years with lots of rains and high river stage. Frankly, we have a serious basis to suspect locals to poach this places nowadays. This is quite new information about the Snatolvayam River because our efforts are located in the lowest sections of the River. Later, at the camp, we discussed the new info with Big Sasha about perspectives of angling at this new place. To date we do not see a good workable plan to expand our activity in the Snatolvayam River basin. The Upper ATV crossing is too far from camp for 1-day operations (the distance is about 40 km) and the road is too hard for our 4-wheeler Ranger because of couple of really bad swamps. But, at the same time we decided to keep in the mind that not only lower part of Snatolvayam could be interesting for our Project for angling. The most optimal way is to have a small-size jet-boat on the Lower Snatolvayam with aim to put additional rods here to be oriented for the Middle sections along with two rods, located on the Lower section. In this case we must decide issues how to keep boat on the Lower Snatolvayam at night or to bring it back-and-forth every day. In any case, for the moment it will make more sense to keep our traditional plan and think thoroughly about expansion on the Snatolvayam River. We see that increase efforts for two more rods on the Snatolvayam River needs in rather big investments and looks like dreams for the future. The only strong reason to think about expansion is provide a better patrol of the River. In case if we would fish on the bigger section of the River, for sure there would be way better anti-poaching actions. At present, the section around Upper ATV crossing is fully without any patrol. At the arrive at the camp area we found out that in the last 1-2 month nobody made a visit our cabins, the tall grass everywhere was the evidence. No dramatic damage of the infrastructure, no walkways stolen. Already good news, but it is obvious that the lifetime of many things is over or close to be over. First to do is to repair or replace floorboards, wood stoves, roofs etc. At the arrival on the Utkholok camp there were not steps from the bank to the water at all (it was washed away in 2019, and we did not build it in 2020 because of limitations in the cargo capacity of the single ATV). We are at the point, when the time for serious reconstruction is coming quickly if we want to provide adequate service for the expedition. To the moment when first group of anglers arrive, camps reach a good shape (fig. 4), but it is crystal clear that urgent improvement needed.
Figure 4. Kvachina Camp from the bird view. The Camp looks good but improvement needed. 6
In the year of 2021 there was a very good crop of cedar nuts, everywhere from Sedanka village to the Kvachina hills. It was obvious that we would face with the “bear problem” because after pink salmon in the rivers are dead, the bears move towards rich foraging areas in the cedar bushes. This year our camps were equipped by the good bear dogs (two for Kvachina Camp, one for Utkholok Camp) that provide for us protection for the whole period. The rivers at the time of the arrive were at the baseflow, the river stage was low. On the Kvachina River almost all riffles had a water column about 30 cm, the width of the river was about eighteen meter at the Camp site. Utkholok River was in a better shape because of its bigger size and catchment area. At the riffles on the Utkholok River there were no less than 50-60 cm, and the flow was quite a strong – no less than 0.8 m/s on the riffles and 0.3 m/s in the runs. It is normal for Utkholok River baseflow period. But subjective impression was very clear – the Utkholok River was shallow (fig. 5). The low stage caused a number of difficulties while driving on the jetboat. No real problems, so far so good. Several rides that we did in the first days after arrival showed that river is untouched. We did not find even one sign of caviar poachers on the banks of the Utkholok River. The only ride to the mouth gave us a strong confidence that there was almost nobody at the mouth area. Perhaps there were some duck hunters because we found some used cartridge cases on the banks of small lake on the coastal plain off the riverbank.
Figure 5. The Utkholok River, September, 21, 2021; the Camp Run. River is shallow and there were places that were a piece of work for jet-boat driving. But no big problem for fish to move. In fact, we have the result of many-years efforts between locals that three steelhead rivers in a fall time are some kind of “restricted zone” and it would better to poach for pinks/chums/coho 7
somewhere else. It is close to be true because we know, that poaching at the Napana River (a tributary of the Tigil River, on the bank of Napana the first-nation village of Sedanka is placed) is active and people aimed at coho in September. Moderate poaching activity for Pacific salmon take place in the Tigil River basin. For us it is important to monitor what is going on our rivers before anglers coming. It is important to underline, that this year, in 2021, there were no anglers at the First Session. Usually, we started the season at September, 18-20. Not this year when we began at September, 28. It is obvious that we must have the most veracious information about steelhead run to plan our future operations. That is why along with camp set up we started patrol the river and execute test fishing. The most efforts were concentrated on the Utkholok River because Kirill and Marina at this time were on here. Test fishing and patrol on the Kvachina in September, 20-26 were done several times by Big Sasha and Pavel for 2-3 hours/day. At the Utkholok River, at a period, when water temperature varied from 10 to 12C, we saw quite a lot of fish, coho salmon mostly. It looks that in 2021 there was a late run of coho, because there were a lot of fish in the whole fishing section of the river, partly there were fish without spawning color, but >50% were red. Also, we found out that in 2021 there was a good run of “late” coho – those fish a much smaller in size (about 45-50 cm) and all of them a in silver color and immature gonads. Based on the catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) estimation, the peak of the run in “late” coho took place in mid-September. This is quite new info about Utkholok River fish community, because in the past the abundance of “late” coho was very low or such a fish was even absent in some years. At a first glance it looks that we can see the consequences of the North Pacific warming, which is activating in last two decades. The good outcome that we can use those fish for eating of the crew. Along with coho we noticed rather many migrating upstream Dolly Varden charr, those fish, besides its body length/weight were all immature and entering the river for wintering. Unusual that in the past several years we did not have many Dolly’s in the catch. But the most interesting for us will be report about steelhead presence in the River. From the first days we found out, that steelhead is already in the camp area, in the runs below the camp and above the camp. The density of fish was low, to our estimation is no more than one fish for each tail-out, but those fish were everywhere up to the most top places where we are usually fishing with anglers (the mouth of little tributary about 12-15 km upstream from the Utkholok Main Camp). Fish were active and we caught a number of them before sponsors came. So, in 2021 the Utkholok River at the very beginning of the expedition was “alive” and gave a good opportunity to sponsors for productive fishing.
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Figure 6. The first days on the Utkholok River gave us not bad catch of steelhead and all the steelhead we landed, or saw in the water were fresh from the ocean, in a silver color and strong.
At the same time, all the steelhead in September, 20-27 in the Utkholok River were very circumspect and cautious – the fish easily run away from the holding place after a noise from the steps in the water or too loud talking (!) of people, and boat drive of course. That is why the initial impression was that there were very-very few steelhead in the River. Also, steelhead in this period demonstrated preference to small-size flies and tended to avoid our favorite big ones that became great later, in the cold water. It is important to add, that we can see fish, moving upstream at the camp area, because shallow water gave us opportunity to every single fish because of a wake, caused on the fish’s back. So every morning and evening we saw a good push of the fish, passing by the Camp area. To our opinion, most of morning and evening migrants were steelhead, while coho moved in daytime mostly. We are quite sure in our guess because of test fishing and comparing of the wakes – the steelhead wake is much more robust that coho’s ones. So, our expert estimation that in September, 20-26 no less than three hundred steelhead claimed upstream through the camp area. Also, good news that we did not find any dramatic or remarkable change in the geomorphology of the river section – all the runs/tail-outs were in a great shape, nothing disappeared, so far, no need to make any changes in the destination fishing plans. In general, we are quite sure that in 2021 season on the Utkholok River the fishing for steelhead will be effective and interesting (including challenge for fish and proper tackle) for anglers and productive from the data collection point. No same on the Kvachina River. Because of very low river stage there was no move of fish by the River. All the test fishing gave no result. It looks that in the Kvachina we had the same late run of coho, but most of cohos were upstream from the camp, somewhere around the Forks. All the attempts to get steelhead on our traditional places failed. It looks that not only low stage was the reason for it, because there was a period of high tides at the beginning of the expedition and high water dammed the river up to the camp. Absence of steelhead in the Kvachina could be a 9
result of warm water in the river (over 12 C) up to September, 27. The rapid assessment of the runs/tail-out on the Kvachina showed that we lost at least three very productive places in the Lowest part of Kvachina – the Anchor Pool, The Fingers, and the Arm. The most dramatic lost was the Anchor pool, where across mud bad appear and instead of good flow in the run now we have an eddy scour pool without a piece of water for swimming off the line. The other two runs changed dramatically that caused excluding of them for fishing operations. So we faced to the problem of thorough placing of the anglers within the River. The good sign for all the rivers were in September, 24-25, when a rain came, it was not hard but enough to increase the river stage for 20 cm in the Utkholok River and 30 cm in the Kvachina River; also, there were a little drop of the temperature – in the Utkholok river it was 8-9 C, in the Kvachina – about 10 C. For sure it was a combination of stimulating factors for steelhead to increase the anadromous migration. The evidence for it we saw in the Kvachina River at September, 26, when test fishing, done by Kirill and Pavel gave three hook-ups per rod in 15 minutes in the front of coming tidal wave. In general, it means that right before the arrival of the first groups to Utkholok and Kvachina Camps, the rivers came into the very good shape and we had a perfect river and weather conditions along with enough steelhead to have a great First session. 4. Main attributes of fish run, within-river distribution, and fishing operations. The angling operations started at September, 27, a day ahead of the schedule because of the severe weather forecast. It was better to bring people before and gave them the extra day rather than miss 1-3 days of rainstorm in the mountains. At the First Session there was a team of six anglers on the Kvachina River, and team of four anglers and one cinematographer on the Utkholok River; the total number of fishing days was nine for both teams, departure of the anglers from the First Session was at October, 07. The Second session was more moderate by the number of anglers: four people in the Kvachina Camp and four at the Utkholok Camp. The beginning of the Second Session was in time, but flight back was moved for three days because of extremely bad weather and no chances for helicopter to make a safe flight. So, the end of the expedition took place at October, 17, 2021. Between the last several years it was the latest date. Once in the past we had a year when the departure from the camp took place at October, 18, 1998; and one year we stayed in the Kvachina Camp for November, 04, 1996 – it was a plan to see the full time of steelhead run before ice. The last days of the 2021 season were tough because of the weather – it was cold and river was about to freeze (fig. 7).
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Figure 7. The Kvachina River view at the day of the departure, October, 17, 2021; the air temperature is -5C, the water temperature is 0.4C. Fishing operations are possible but hard. In general, we had a quiet season, with minimal disturbance for fishing operations from the rainstorms and floods. There were only couple days at the end of the First Session, when fishing was poor on Kvachina and Snatolvayam because of water increase and mud in the water, and seriously limited in the Utkholok because of the same reasons. But we did not stop fishing at this time, and besides poor results people stay optimistic and in a good mode. So, total we missed no more than two days of effective and fruitful fishing that is quite acceptable and did not compromise the expedition in general. As for the Second Session, there was no even one day when we had poor river conditions for angling. The other thing that was the remarkable attribute of the 2021 season is cold weather. In fact, we had a situation, when warm and pleasant autumn in a moment altered by winter. The first severe frost took place in a daytime at September, 30, and the first hard snowstorm came at October, 03. Since that time, we were in the conditions of real winter. Such weather was not a dramatic factor for our operations, because something like that we already had in 2015. The only difficulty was the store of firewood, that we had to order one more ATV ride to cover our needs. Fortunately, our anglers did not notice the shortage of the firewood because of additional efforts of our staff, who organized the trip to the cedar bushes for firewood – there were couple places where dead cedar stay untouched. So far, we should state that river conditions for angling was one of the best during the whole history of the KSP. There was not anything unusual in the general angling approach this year: we used the same technique and tackle that showed its effectiveness before. No correction was needed in case of flies, lines, or rods. Moreover, this year did not give any novices to improve our many-year experience of steelhead angling on Kamchatka. The only thing we can say – that on the Kvachina River, majority of the hooked and landed fish prefer dark flies – blue and black, purple and black or black. But we know well how it can change within and between years. 11
Total we obtained samples and made tagging for 195 fish from the Utkholok River, ninetytwo fish from the Kvachina River and forty-two fish from the Snatolvayam River. In general, the angling on the Utkholok was seriously better than on the Kvachina and Snatolvayam – Table 1. In the table there is discrepancy between total catch in the Utkholok River, because sixteen steelhead were landed by Kirill Kuzishchin before the First group came, so the CPUE for the period September, 20-26 is 2.3 fish/rod/day. Table 1. General information about fishing efforts in season 2021. River
First Session
Second Session
Fishing effort
Total hooked/ landed
CPUE*
Fishing effort
Total hooked/ landed
CPUE*
Utkholok
4 rods, 8 days
88/64
2.8/2.0
4 rods, 7 days
224/115
8.0/4.1
Kvachina
4 rods, 8 days
68/38
2.17/1.2
4 rods, 7 days
79/54
2.8/1.9
Snatol2 rods, 37/16 2.3/1.0 2 rods, 39/26 2.8/1.8 vayam 8 days 7 days Note: * - CPUE is estimated in number of fish/rod/day; first figure – for hooked fish, second – for those which were landed. The table show objective data, but we must keep in the mind, that it is a difference between statistical data and particular results. For example, at the First Session on the Kvachina River we had an angler who was for the first time on the steelhead fishing and this angler hooked and landed only three fish during the whole Session. It means that the actual results were higher than it was presented in the table. But even in this case, the Utkholok River provide much more fish than Kvachina. In the past we also had better fishing on the Utkholok than on Kvachina/Snatolvayam, but there was not such a big difference. We can see that the real fishing results on Kvachina and Snatolvayam are more or less similar, and this data supports our approach to operate on both rivers. Talking about angling results will be interesting to make a comparable analysis of the feature over years. It is clear that during the last 4-5 years the year of 2021 is really best – Table 2. We can see that the results for Kvachina and Snatolvayam vary between years, but not much and stay more or less stable over years. While fishing on the Utkholok is more variable, but lower limits for the Utkholok River are all the years higher, that on two other rivers. The reasons why we do have the best fishing in 2021 while having fewer rods is not really clear. At the first glance it looks that we can see the tendency of increasing abundance of steelhead in three North-West Kamchatkan rivers in 21st Century, and thereafter, improvement of fishing. Perhaps it is the consequence of the warming of the North Pacific, but the other reason could be better protection of stocks because of our efforts. According to our data, showing that most of steelhead mature at age 6 years, in 2021 we see the progeny of fish that entered the river in 2015 – the year when our expedition worked in the field. It is possible that we can see the outcome of our conservation efforts.
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Table 2. The comparison of angling effectiveness (CPUE) over years. Year River Utkholok
Kvachina
Snatolvayam
2017
4.45 / 2.15*
3.06 / 1.51
2.79 / 1.54
2018
3.19 / 1.55
2.55 / 1.30
2.54 / 1.27
2019
1.55 / 0.73
0.93 / 0.41
1.61 / 0.72
2021
5.20 / 2.98
2.45 / 1.53
2.53 / 1.43
Note: * - the first figure is for hooked fish, the second – landed fish. Outstanding results and atmosphere of optimism between the members of the expedition had a good perspectives to be higher that we reached. But there were two things that caused a mystery for us. First aspect was restricted to the Kvachina-Snatolvayam river basins. In the middle of the First session, we begin to notice, that steelhead at a glance became slow and began ignoring flies. We can a see a big number of fish, passing through the riffles and shallow runs. Sometimes guides and anglers could see at least a dozen of fish rolling on the tail-out or passing through it, but no one bite we had. And such events took place almost all the days at the second half of the First Session and 2-3 days during the Second Session. At the same time people at the Utkholok River did not face same problem. We are not ready to give a good explanation of the “steelhead strike” in Kvachina and Snatolvayam to date. Initially we decided that the main reason is rather high water temperature (actual measurements show 6-8 C at the period of strike), but later in October there was a good biting activity of fish. Also, there was idea that rapid change in the weather (big shifts in atmospheric pressure) could influence on the fish in a small-size rivers like Kvachina and Snatolvayam, while bigger water column in the Utkholok River could buffer the weather factors. But those are only theories, no good data to calculate regressions. The other factor also gave us a challenge. Both on Utkholok and Kvachina rivers there were poor results in the section of the rivers “camp – down.” It was a big surprise that in 2021 the most productive water was above the Camp (Utkholok) of way above the Camp (Kvachina). We have no explanation for it, because the Camp on the Utkholok River is placed in 35 km from the ocean, while the Kvachina Camp – at a distance of 12 km only. There is not any logic in this strange distribution of active fish. But as a result, we had a decrease in the possible catch and a big challenge for people. Again, even having those two “brakes” we achieved outstanding results. We would like to comment one more issue. In 2021 for the first time, we began to use landing nets (Figure 8). Those tools gave us a good opportunity to increase the number of obtained samples. First, we decrease the number of escaped fish at the short distance nearshore. Some days on the Kvachina River there was no one escaped fish. Second, all the manipulations with fish became much more handy and useful. Moreover, having fish in the landing net while obtaining samples cause less possible harm for fish because of limited ability of fish to flap and hit itself over the pebbles. The nets that we used were of a special design, which cause almost no harm for fish. We see only positive role of this tool in ready to include it into the standard protocol for sampling of the fish. 13
Figure 8. The use of the landing nets is a big step forward in the sampling procedure. From 2021 we would like to have and use landing nets as obligatory tool in the boat. In 2021 was the first time in the history we noticed very low number of fish with the seal bites. In Kvachina River we saw only two (!) fish with the seal bites, there was very few such fish in the Utkholok River. The trips that we did to the mouth of the Kvachina/Snatolvayam rivers showed a remarkable change in the structure of the river mouth, but in general there are a lot of resting places that harbor seals could use. But there was one on the shore or in the sea. Same story was about the Utkholok River mouth. There is no good reason why there is no seals in the coastal area of our rivers, but it could be one of the factors, why we had a good run of fish. 5. Anti-poaching activity As far as we returned to the regular activity, the function of the river patrol lay down on the angling crews. In 2021 all the Russian guides had a special scout skill from the 2020 season and were well prepared for over viewing the situation on the River. Justin Miller also has enough experience to be a sentinel of the River. We had a Fish Police officer in the Kvachina Camp with a special authority to fight with steelhead poachers. The basic approach was that guides to find out the case of poaching and Fish Policeman to react immediately. We have a special communication devices to be in contact every single moment. We had a drone on the Utkholok River to make expanded rides over River. But all during the period of expedition there was not one case of poaching, nor any sign of poacher’s tracks. Special focus was on the ATV crossings at Kvachina and Utkholok. All the days we were nearby the crossings and can keep the place under control. Our Fish Policeman stay all the time without work. So far, we have a great confidence that there was no harm for steelhead stocks in the fall of 2021. For the future we would like to see our Fish Police staying in camp and doing nothing how we had in 2021 rather than be loaded by fight with poachers. 14
6. Main scientific results of 2020 expedition The length-weight characteristics of anadromous steelhead in 2021 looks similar, but the biggest average length and weigh were observed in the Utkholok River. Also, the biggest fish was caught in the Utkholok River. The smallest average size in 2021 was in the Kvachina River – Table 3. Over years those attributes vary, but there are some interesting tendencies. In different years steelhead from the Kvachina River had the smallest average size and weight – table 4. More interesting details about steelhead in the Snatolvayam River. From 1994, when we started our project, and up to the nearest last years, the biggest fish occur in the Snatolvayam River. But in the last 2-3 years we see that the size of the steelhead decreased. While in the Utkholok River we see the increase of length and weight – table 4. And in 2021 we know that the Utkholok steelhead is the biggest. Table 3. Size and weight of steelhead in the 2021 samples. River
Fork length, mm
Total weight, g
Snatolvayam
777.6 (650-910)
5255 (2595-8518)
Kvachina
771.2 (630-870)
5237 (2553-8479)
Utkholok
782.8 (660-960)
5536 (2922-9532)
Table 4. Size-weight variations in steelhead over years. Year 2017
Utkholok 783 (540-965) 5506 (1650-10173)
Kvachina 772 (550-910) 5104 (1449-8605)
Snatolvayam 812 (700-980) 6077 (4279-9064)
2018
766 (620-930) 5057 (2475-9856)
755 (560-927) 4892 (2452-9327)
771 (640-930) 5183 (2231-9518)
2019
792 (510-900) 5767 (1559-8331)
787 (640-914) 5548 (2913-9196)
778 (670-930) 5545 (4053-10573)
2020
791 (725-920) 5803 (1559-9122)
783 (572-900) 5721 (2833-8859)
-
2021
782 (660-960) 5536 (2922-9532)
771 (630-870) 5237 (2553-8479)
778 (650-910) 5255 (2595-8518)
The reasons for this are unclear. The study of the growth rate shows that in all the rivers the growth rate (e.g., how fast is the increase in the body length per year) was smaller in 19941996 comparing with 1970-1971. At the same time in the Snatolvayam River in the period of 1994-1998 there were bigger proportion of fish with highest growth rate comparing with two other rivers. Moreover, during this period steelhead from the Utkholok River had the lowest growth rate. This data is a support that in three rivers the stocks are separated and each has its own gene pool. The interpopulation differences was rather high and it is possible that the features of ocean foraging behaviors are from different parts of North Pacific. Now we see that the growth rate of steelhead in all the rivers, obtained in 2015-2020 became more uniform. And differences in the average size and weight of fish are the consequence in the proportion of “big” 15
or “small” fish in the sample. So the observed differences could be result in some subjective factors, like sample size – for years we see that sample size from the Utkholok River were the biggest. But we need in the additional data from 2021 to support or reject this hypotheses. In 2021 most of anadromous steelhead in the Utkholok River had a silver ocean color, and very few fish carried some spawning color, males mostly – figure 9. Same story we found out in the Snatolvayam River – no one fish in color was landed. In opposite, in the Kvachina river about one-third of fish had a color both males and females – figure 10.
Figure 9. Couple of pictures showing typical steelhead from the Utkholok River in September-October 0f 2021.
Figure 10. Steelhead from the Kvachina River – many fish had color even in the lower reaches. In 2021 we keep doing mark-recapture studies of tagged steelhead. Usually we are retrieving several fish (2-5) that were tagged in the previous years and 5-6 fish that were tagged in the current year. In 2021 it was little different results. First, no one recapture of fish that were tagged this year. It looks logical because most of the steelhead we caught in the upper reaches and highly likely that all those fish mover further upstream and there were very few chances to get them for a second time in the current year. Second, we had rather many recaptures in the Utkholok River – 6 fish that were tagged in 2019 (5) and in 2020 (1). The most interesting recaptures were in Kvachina and Snatolvayam Rivers. In the Kvachina River we had three recaptures, two from 2019, and one – from 2016 (!). In the Snatolvayam River there was one recapture, but this fish was tagged in 2019 in the Kvachina River (!). It is for the first time when we got the evidence that there is a stray 16
between rivers. It is a contrast with all the previous data and ideas about divergence between stocks. It is too few data to make any conclusions but it means for sure that it is urgently needed to keep monitoring over the steelhead stocks. Besides steelhead study we are doing our best to look after all other species in the River. The main focus now is on the char – White-Spotted char, Dolly Varden charr and their hybrids. To date three rivers of the North-West Kamchatka are the only watersheds in the whole Holarctic zone where we see natural between-species on-going hybridization. This is a unique case and it is an important natural laboratory for study of speciation and evolution processes. In 2021 we had one of the most productive years, because we obtained the biggest sample of hybrids during the whole history of the KSP – 17 specimen. Moreover, once we stated, that in 2017 the hybrids were found for the first time in the Kvachina River, we are see them every year. In 2019 we for the first time found a hybrid in the Snatolvayam River. In 2021 both in Kvachina and Snatolvayam we collected hybrids – fig 11. It means that the hybrid zone increasing and improving. We see here only one reason – big shifts in the climate on the Asian part of North Pacific. If so, we already have a data what kind of the processes could take place in the nature in case if the trend for global warming will keep going.
Figure 11. The hybrids of Dolly Varden and White-Spotted charrs from Kvachina (left) and Snatolvayam (right) rivers. Genetic studies that we did on the data from 2016-2020 showed, that in the sample of 2019 there was one hybrid, which had a Dolly Warden mother and White-Spotted char father, while all other hybrids had opposite parental pattern. So we see that now natural systems are under the high environment pressure that cause unusual processes. 7. The outcomes and ideas for future operations. The 2021 year should be defined as a successful and we still have a strong background for the coming period. Along with the achievements we have a few issues that need attention in the update. The most important issue is to make smooth all the operation in the field and avoid a number of problems that could appear. It is obvious that the presence of the expedition is a strong protection for the steelhead stocks. As far as when we are at the river, there is no poacher’s ride here. One of the ways how to improve the protection of the stocks is to stay longer. We must consider having working camps until November 1, having a modest crew of two rods on each river in the camp and staff. ◼
End of Report 17