Английский язык: Сборник текстов и упражнений. Дьякова Н.П. - 98 стр.

chatka’s fish protection inspectors preserve these unique wild salmon stocks?
    As usual, Moscow is too busy to worry about its provinces. Recently, the
United Nations listed Kamchatka’s volcanoes as World Heritage sites. Isn’t this
an appropriate time to expand that list by including our planet’s unique wild
Kamchatka salmon runs? If we don’t unite our international efforts in protecting
this world heritage, it could soon disappear. The rate at which Kamchatka’s sal-
mon are being destroyed progresses exponentially, and Moscow continues to in-
troduce new experiments into fish protection, putting inspectors through “survival
of the fittest” tests. Currently, Kamchatrybvod employees (as well as many oth-
ers) are not paid for their work. Should inspectors risk their health and very lives
protecting fish without compensation for their labor? Perhaps they will be left with
no choice but to pick up a harpoon or net, and earn their bread by stocking up on
caviar. Who, then, will be left to answer for Kamchatka’s empty salmon rivers?
    The Foundation for the Rescue of Kamchatka’s Salmon, based in Petropav-
lovsk, Kamchatka, is dedicated to ecological education and strengthening efforts
to prevent salmon overfishing and poaching. For more information, or to offer
much-needed financial support, please contact the Pacific Environment and Re-
sources Center (PERC). Checks should be made out to PERC, who will transfer
the funds directly to the Foundation for the rescue of Kamchatka salmon.


    Whales of the Sea of Okhotsk in Days of the Past, Present and Future
     Thanks to Herman Melwill we do know of Mody Dick’s fate. Risking life us-
ing small boats and hand weapons, the whalers of the past killed whales in high
seas throughout the world. That white sperm-whale made a symbol for whale ex-
termination and antagonisms between Man and Nature. It is really sad to realize
that the slaughter of the sea giants continued in our days just the same, making a
wide use of powerful fleet and wide range harpoon-guns with explosive charges
going off when inside the doomed animals. In the Far East only, five whaling
fleets were under full scale operation where the whales were stalked and slain un-
til the last one in a group, giving small or none consideration to size or sex.
     That type of operation inadvertently caused a disastrous drop in whale popula-
tion, and by the 70s practically nothing left to hunt for.
     Happily, nowadays the only reminder of the massive killings of whales, that
are easy prey in spite of their size, are debris of the whaling shore camps–rusty
whale fat boiling caldrons, long-defunct fat melting furnaces, and whaling crew
living quarters.
     Despite the recent attempts to assess bigger whale species population in the
Far-Eastern seas, effective population control was lost in prior years, to leave
scientists barehanded as for the bigger species number, winter stays, favorite
breeding locations and reproduction perspectives.
     Today, practically all bigger whale species are enlisted in the Russian Red
Book and International List of protected Species (МСОП), although the fact was
not instrumental in boosting the further research. Therefore, the endangered spe-
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