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Maritime Fishery In Chukotka

September 05, 2003

Research by scientists from Kirov and Anadyr have found that the population of Chukotka revert to traditional ways of procuring food. Since the late 1990s, people have started to catch maritime animals more actively and go fishing, mushroom and berry-picking.

For two or three thousand years, maritime animals have been traditionally the primary source of food for the population of Chukot Peninsula. During the Soviet era this tradition was broken to some extent, however in the 1990s, whaling became in demand again due to the crisis in deer-raising. In 1998 the Greenland right whale (Balaena mysticetus) hunting was restored. In 1999 the gray whale (Eschrichtius gibbosus) was procured by hunters of at least five settlements in Chukotka, such as Kongergino, Uelkal, Vankarem, Nutepelman, Neshkan, Enturmino.

Initially, due to their lack of experience, hunters shot only young whales as they were afraid of a gigantic animal and worried to lose it thus wasting the catch quota allocated by the International Whaling Commission. However, soon the competition between the settlements for the meat of maritime animals and improved hunters' skills allowed to catch quite adult whales. It turned out that the Greenland right whale hunting is even easier that hunting for aggressive gray whales - the Greenland right whale is easier to control: when harpooned it can be easily directed towards the shore.

Hunters of one of the largest Chukot settlements - Novoe Chaplino - are equipped with the following facilities. The population of the settlement makes 424 persons, including 15 hunters for maritime animals. They have 4 whale-boats and 20 personal boats with 18 engines. On top of several motor vehicles, snowmobiles and motorcycles, they possess eight dog-teams harnessing 84 dogs.

As for weapons, the hunters have 18 smooth-bore guns, 16 carabines and several American manual harpoon guns. Along with that, the hunters experience serious shortage of ammunition and petrol. Within a year the hunters catch about five whales, twenty to thirty walruses and nearly five hundred seals. The total weight of maritime catch equals approximately 80 tons.

After the animals are cut, about three hundred grams of maritime animal meat per day falls on each inhabitant of the settlement. If its calorie content is evaluated in that of deer meet, it would make more than a kilogram of venison per day. That means that nourishment of the settlement population requires a herd of deer accounting two and a half thousand heads.

In addition, the hunters annually get by on one and a half tons of various terrestrial animals, birds, eggs, berries and mushrooms. That provides a daily additional half a kilogram of food per each member of the family. All the above, in the opinion of researchers from the All-Russian Research Institute for game farming and beast-breeding, currently makes the sole and basic source of living for the majority of the settlement inhabitants.

One should not think that the hunters of Novoe Chaplino consume themselves one and a half kilograms of meat per day. They support with the gifts of the sea and wood their relatives who left for town - regional center Providence or to the capital of the Area - Anadyr, and thus are deprived of the opportunity to procure food by themselves.

Besides hunting, the Chukot whalers help the scientists observe maritime animals. In particular, the observations of hunters from Enturmino and Inchoun settlements helped to prove that Greenland right whales move westbound in spring along Chukotka towards Long Strait. Now the hunters inform about appearance of a large number of sick gray whales: their meat smells bad and even dogs would not eat it.

"Unfortunately, young hunters are not that keen in observing whales and understanding their habits as elder hunters are, complains Eduard Zdor, specialist of the Department for fishery and agricultural policy of Chukot Autonomous Area. Their knowledge is fragmentary, scrappy and lacks solid traditional foundation. Probably, it is high time to issue special manuals on biology for maritime fishery".

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency