Three users fish and process fish here: two individual entrepreneurs and the Svobodny fishing collective farm. The “Puir” artel is also registered, but it does not work, only ruins remain on the site of the base.
Since 2017, Svobodny has actually become a city formation company for Ozerpakh.
– We live at the very edge of the earth, beyond – only Sakhalin. And the collective farm is like a breath of clean air for us, because thanks to it tax deductions were deducted, says the head of the Ozerpakh rural settlement Natalya Volkova. – Our budget is 5.5 million rubles. The collective farm pays 6.4 million to the consolidated local budget only for the agricultural tax and 700 thousand for the use of aquatic biological resources. For us, this is a very good help.
In addition, the company has invested heavily in the productive and social infrastructure: it has built a fish processing plant, a residential complex and a wharf, transforming the once empty territories on the banks of the Amur. He repaired the power line at his own expense: he installed 150 poles. Every year, he provides free equipment for the needs of the village: dump trucks, a bulldozer, a bulldozer, a concrete mixer.
According to Natalya Volkova, when renting equipment in the nearest settlement – the city of Nikolaevsk – you have to pay an additional eight hours for the way to Ozerpakh and back. And the collective farm performed free work for the people in 2018 for 250 thousand rubles, in 2019 – for more than a million, in 2020 – for 195 thousand, in 2021 – for 290 thousand, in 2022 – for 368 thousand rubles.
The fishermen working in the village also provide other help in solving the social problems of the Ozerpakh people – they support TOS projects and participate in the “Affordable Fish” program.
“But the ban on salmon fishing in the Amur estuary has endangered our villages both due to the fact that fishing companies will not work on our territory and due to the fact that people will not be able to get their own food in the river,” said the head of the Ozerpakhsky settlement, he believes. – Our population is not rich: potatoes, which they have grown themselves, and fish, which they have caught themselves, are the main diet of many. In addition, the closure of the estuary violated the rights of indigenous peoples. In the village, 15 citizens belong to this category, and in the last fishing season, the only place where they could do traditional fishing was 45 kilometers from Ozerpakh.
According to the head of the Ozerpakhsky rural settlement, the claim that the visiting fishing method adopted in the Amur estuary causes irreparable damage to the salmon herd is unfounded.
Some 800 tonnes of autumn chum salmon were not received by fishermen in the region due to a ban on fishing in the Amur estuary
– They said a lot that they take out all the resources in turns. But those who do not know the intricacies of fishing say so, – says Natalya Volkova. – This method, once peeked by the Japanese, is quite ecological and verifiable. It is easier to control than net fishing. Smooth nets are generally a disaster on the Amur and in the Amur estuary in particular. Zaezdki are the visiting card of the Lower Amur. This spectacle is fascinating, it can also attract tourists: it is interesting to see how fish are caught with such tools, and to eat fish soup on the shore of the estuary.
But the main thing, Volkova emphasizes, is to keep businesses in the coastal towns. And for this it is necessary to lift the ban on salmon fishing in the lower reaches of the Amur, including the visitor.
Comments
Irina Zikunova, Speaker of the Legislative Duma of the Khabarovsk Territory:
– This is a very far-fetched opinion that in the Amur estuary large fishing companies “take out” all the salmon.
The deputies and I dealt with the mechanism of amusement rides, so the head of the Khabarovsk branch of VNIRO, Denis Kotsyuk, came up with it. It is clear that in a huge and wide estuary these fishing gears cannot remove the stocks “below zero”, especially since the entrance is open for the fish to enter and the days of passage have been established.
I believe that the most uncontrolled and dangerous type of fishing is with smooth nets. It is with them that poachers often operate in the middle reaches of the Amur.
Sergey Ryabchenko, Chairman of the Khabarovsk Territory Association of Fishing Enterprises:
– The Association analyzed the results of Putin-2022. It seems that not everything is bad: the spawning grounds are filled, 52 million pieces of caviar are hatched with a plan of 50 million, the indigenous people have reached their limits.
The only ones left in exhaustion are the industrialists. 780 tonnes of fall chum salmon were lost. We see the reason for this, first of all, in the fact that the Amur estuary, in which fishing was previously not limited, was closed. In addition to the Ozerpakh fishermen, the companies of the fishing industry, which ensure the lives of the peoples of Puir, Prongi, Oremif, Chnyrrakh, Leninets, are now in a difficult situation.
We will use all available forces and means to prove the need to open the Amur estuary. Fishery management decisions should be based on the recommendations of fisheries science. Based on the results of the Amur expedition, we have the conclusion of the Pacific branch of VNIRO that the trips do not have a negative impact on the migration of Pacific salmon.
In addition, if companies fail to catch 800-1000 tons of red fish annually due to such bans, then at the current rate of collection for catching aquatic biological resources, the treasury of the Khabarovsk Territory will lose ten million rubles. Is this extra money in our budget in any way surplus?
Help “RG”
Ozerpakh is a rural-type settlement. Located on the banks of the Amur estuary, 51 kilometers from the regional center – the city of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. Founded in 1849 as a fishery. Until the end of the 20th century, the town’s population dedicated itself to catching and processing fish (there was a fish factory that produced preserves) and felling trees. Now 211 people live here.
