Английский язык: Сборник текстов и упражнений. Дьякова Н.П. - 97 стр.

coming out of reach.
    In the meantime, fish continue to swim upstream to their spawning places, di-
rectly into the hands of poachers. Then, in the fall, right before the snow, barrels
of caviar will be smuggled out of hidden storage areas. And the salmon destruc-
tion by poachers will increase exponentially.
    But this is not the end. Besides poaching, Kamchatka has commercial fishing.
Regretfully, it is often criminal in nature. During the Soviet regime, the entire
crew of «Lenin’s Route» fishermen went to jail for illegal caviar harvesting. Dur-
ing those years, that fishing crew was the main supplier of fish on the Kamchatka
River. Today, dozens of fishing crews from various organizations are fishing in
this same area. During early spring, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky’s market is
flooded with early spring chinook.
    Experts estimate that 25–35 percent of all fish harvested is channeled
through the black market. Chinook fishing, for example, exceeds official limits
by 3–4 percent. If during the Soviet regime poaching was commonplace, now its
intensity is even higher, in a time when anything can be bought and sold. Any
fish that can be converted into hard currency is channeled illegally, without do-
cumentation, receipts or records. That is true with every fishing crew. Marine
fishermen speak out openly, stating, «If you have not stocked up 10 barrels of
caviar for yourself, then the fishing season went to waste.» In 1998, nearly 100
fishing crews worked the coastline, and over 500 crews worked the rivers. Dur-
ing the Soviet regime, only 40 nets were worked, and areas where they were
used numbered in the dozens – not in the hundreds, as at present. In addition, the
rivers were under a single ownership, not dozens of owners such as during the
present formation of Russia’s capitalism. The conclusion is that official fish
harvest statistics include only fishing controlled by fish protection inspectors,
and, for reasons explained earlier, we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg. Yet,
this iceberg tip represents 64291929 rubles as estimated by fish inspectors. What,
then, is the true damage to the fish? How much fish is harvested officially? In
1998 alone,
    7165 tons of fish were caught in the eastern region of Kamchatka, and nearly
130000 tons (of which 121 254 tons consisted of pink salmon) were caught in
western Kamchatka. Which means that nearly 8818 tons of rare chinook, sockeye,
coho and chum salmon have been harvested. And in 1999, pink salmon, which
run every other year, will virtually disappear from western Kamchatka. Pink sal-
mon fishing will remain only in eastern Kamchatka’s Koryak Autonomous Re-
gion. Next year, poaching will unite its forces against our most precious and en-
dangered species – Kamchatka’s market, once again, will be flooded with illegal
fish. And why not? Fish distribution and trade are not regulated. In order to sell
vodka or tobacco products, which are controlled by government monopoly, a
merchant must acquire a permit. Federal property, on the other hand – even
poached endangered salmon – can be traded freely. Things have gotten so bad that
even Kamchatka steelhead, protected by Russia’s Red Book, are now sold on the
black market. These are the events and conditions taking place in Kamchatka,
where salmon runs are unmatched anywhere else in the world. How might Kam-
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