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Map For Protection Of Sea Animals

September 12, 2003

The Russian Branch of the WWF has managed to summarize vast experimental data accumulated by Russian maritime biologists and geographers. This effort resulted in the Map of maritime protected natural territories of Russia. The map contains well-known preserves and reserves completely or partially located on the sea coast, and in addition, the map depicts 27 maritime areas worth becoming specially protected territories.

The issue has become now extremely acute as regards to what territories should be protected in the spacious seas surrounding Russia: active development of the shelf is underway, and the process will embrace more and more new territories. To avoid aggravation of ecological crisis, it is important to pick out the zones which can not be affected in any circumstances without consulting with scientists.

The map charted by the biologists of the foundation embodies the Russian approach to environment protection. Its main concept can be articulated as follows: people are capable of causing irreversible changes to nature. Therefore, to establish a reference point and to understand how some natural community looks in the natural environment, it is necessary to make some typical areas preserved. As a result, the Russian preserve system differs a lot from the American system of national parks where beautiful places are protected as it is pleasant to walk there. The European approach is also different from the Russian one - due to high density of population, natural memorials are protected in Europe.

The majority of territories which in maritime ecologists' opinion should be protected, is located on the northern and eastern coasts of Russia. Only two small regions have been marked in the southern seas. "In the Black and Caspian Seas people are so actively performing economic activity that there remain almost no virginal areas, says Vasily Spiridonov, Ph. D. (Biology), Coordinator of Maritime Program of the Foundation. We have singled out two regions. In the Black Sea these are so to say seaside morasses which occurred at mouth of the Kuban River. And in the Caspian Sea - at mouth of the Samur, which flows along the boundary between Russia and Azerbaijan. An isolated shoal of sturgeons lives there. It is very difficult to protect the fish and we wish to try a new approach: take a small territory inhabitied by isolated sturgeons and try to organize control over people's activity in this territory."

Much more territories which have not been affected by people's activity are located in the Far East. One of the hardest impacts on in that region, as well as in the seas of European North, is deep-water creeping. Large metal balls are attached to the drag-net. They are required to ensure that the lower part of the drag-net moves near the bottom. These balls roll along the bottom and mix everything on the bottom. Besides, the drag-net scoops out some of the animals, other animals easily pass through the meshes. As a result, several years of creeping change drastically the section of the sea bottom and community of organisms inhabiting it.

Fortunately, creeping is prohibited in some areas of the Sea of Okhotsk. For example, since the Soviet era limitations have existed for fishing and catching sea food in some zones of the western shelf of Kamchatka and near the Southern extremity of Taigonos peninsula. In these zones colonies of hydroid polyps are located in the form of peculiar bushes undergrowth, where the Kamchatka crabs propagate and their whitebait becomes mature. There are no plans to develop minerals in these areas, but to preserve inviolability of these lots in the future, it would be good to assign to them a stricter legal status of specially protected territories.

A very interesting area is located in the south-east extremity of the Sea of Okhotsk in the vicinity of the Shantarskie Islands. The ice melts very late there, however, the summer is rather hot as the Islands are located in the same latitude as Moscow. That results in the mixture of the trans-polar climate and that of midlatitudes. Therefore, about a hundred of ice whales, making the population of the Sea of Okhotsk, spend summer months here. Their fate is more or less happy in contrast to tragic situation of gray whales: oil-field development has been started in the area of the Bay of Piltun (Sakhalin), where whale females arrive to give birth to and to nurse babies. The guarded zone near the bay is the object of long struggle between ecologists and oil industry workers, the outcome of the struggle is still unfavorable for whales. However, maritime biologists view no serious problems with the Island of Moneron at the southern extremity of Sakhalin. Here is the zone of extremely transparent water and unique tropical creatures, for the sake of which the people fond of underwater journeys are ready to fly to the end of the earth. The national park in the vicinity of the island will ensure future significant revenues from international tourism.

People's activity had serious impact only on the Barents Sea out of the seas of the Arctic Ocean. The major necessity in this sea is to establish the preserve in the center of it, near Goose sand-bank. That is not maritime biologists' caprice: the region in the "kindergarten" for the whitebait of precious fish, for example, cod, its shoal being drastically damaged by active commercial fishery. Should the sand-bank remain unprotected, the quantity of fish would not be restored, and that will influence the level of future catch.

The Pechora Sea, separated from the White Sea by Kanin Peninsula, and from the Barents Sea - by the island of Kolguev, is in the same position as the Sea of Okhotsk used to be ten to fifteen years ago: significant reserves of oil were also explored here and their development will start soon. As a result, the organisms inhabiting the area are jeopardized, particularly a unique community formed in Cheshskaya Bay near the sand-banks populated by barnacles Balanus improvisus. These overgrowing animals resembling not barnacles but white cockle-shell form extensive garland colonies, around which multiple organisms settle down. This territory located in Cheshskaya Bay is worth, in the Foundation's opinion, becoming specially protected.

If we move further to the east, a large zone to be protected is located between the Lena estuary and the Novosbirsk Islands. That is the so-called the Lena water opening. Even in winter, when the ocean is covered by ice both from the north and from the south of it, the space of open water is preserved. The Lena water opening is very interesting for the researchers, and for sea animals it serves the location where they can find food in wintertime. There is no direct threat to this area now, but when active traffic is restored along the Northern shipping lane, the problem may arise. To avoid unnecessary conflicts, the researchers believe that the biosphere testing area should be established there: economic activity will be allowed in the area, but it will be carried out under biologists' control.

One more area in the Arctic Ocean which should have the position of specially protected territory is Chaunskaya inlet in Chukotka not far from Pevek. Here the kelp is the basis of the community. This is the only place where the kelp can be found in such high latitudes - normally kelps inhabit fifteen degrees further south.

"After we have developed the map, systematic effort can be started to protect these territories, while there remains something to protect there, says Vasily Spiridonov. There is a very instructive example. At the time when the Commander Islands were assigned the status of particularly protected zone thanks to Academician Zhirmunsky's endeavor, fishery by deep-water drag-nets was still unknown. As a result, this is one of few sections of the bottom which was not ploughed up by drag-nets. If the Sakhalin Bay of Piltun had been assigned the same status in due time, there would have been no conflict now with oil industry workers because of the whales' 'pasture'. If actions to protect the territory are started in due time, such conflicts can be avoided in the future."

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency