Kamchatka is a perennial destination for many anglers searching for truly wid and remote pacific salmon and rainbow trout fishing. But last week something deadly started to flow from a major river, affecting the sea life and likely the fish species that previously thrived upstream.
A few weeks ago, the tight-knit surfing community of the Kamchatka Peninsula started reporting symptoms of massive pollution occurring along the coast affecting the much loved Khalaktyrsky Beach. The fish looked as though they were boiled and barnacles that would have previously torn waders and wetsuits now fall from the rocks.
The Siberian Times reports that “Doctors registered eye corneal burns. Many people who have been in with water also show symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, weakness, high fever, which may indicate phenol poisoning.”
As you can see in the satellite image from Greenpeace Russia, the plume of toxins is radiating into the sea.
According to the Siberian Times on October 3rd, “Several local residents published satellite pictures shared by Greenpeace Russia, showing a yellow-colored river flowing into the Pacific Ocean.
There is a military training ground upstream, they said.
‘We are getting new information every hour; just recently we received satellite pictures from @greenpeaceru of the river that flows into the ocean and that evidently killed everything.
‘Up the stream, there is a military training ground. Knowing how the system works and how these kinds of questions are getting hushed, we must do everything in our power to save the ocean right and to defend from a catastrophe in the future’, wrote one of the surfers under the nickname Yola_La.
‘Our beautiful underwater world is now color grey and yellow. The fish looks like it’s been boiled. Even the strongest shells that could tear a diving suit fell off the rocks. The scariest of all is that we don’t know what to do, how to help. I am looking at the stunning sunset over the Avacha Bay, knowing that its bottom is covered with dead sea animals’, another local called Kristy_Rozenberg wrote.”
To read the full story, check out the Siberian Times article, here!
