Natural spawning of chum salmon in the south of Primorye needs to be restored

The director of the institution, Viktor Bardyuk, also proposed limiting the withdrawal of salmon by the fish hatchery from the rivers of the Khasansky district of Primorye, most of which flow through the territory of the "Land of the Leopard".

The chum salmon, which was born in the spawning rivers of the national park, returns here from the ocean a few years later to give light to its offspring. "Land of the Leopard" is actively fighting poachers, as a result of which employees have been successful in increasing the number of spawning clutches in the Narva River.

However, in 2019, the Barabashevsky Salmon Fish Hatchery installed a fish barrier on it, after which the occupancy of natural spawning grounds fell from 70 to 7%.

"The main function of the hatchery is to restore the salmon population through artificial reproduction. Despite the fact that, according to the reports of the local hatchery, the number of fry released annually significantly exceeds the number of fish caught, there are not enough chum salmon spawners returning to local rivers to lay caviar in accordance with the design capacity of the factory According to experts, this indicates low return rates and, accordingly, problems with factory reproduction of chum salmon at these plants," the press service of Land of the Leopard said.

National park specialists believe that the plant is fulfilling its own plans for fish breeding, preventing natural spawning. At the same time, the seasonal availability of fish in spawning rivers is necessary to preserve the existing biodiversity. Salmon at this time serve as food for at least 25 species of mammals, including extremely rare ones.

“In practice, it is known that the artificial reproduction of salmon in generations negatively affects the genetics of the fish: it becomes smaller, returns less. And with natural reproduction, strong, big fish survive. We are convinced that it is necessary to preserve natural reproduction on all rivers, let part of the salmon go to natural spawning grounds. At the same time, as before, we call for the exclusion of the Narva River from aquaculture and not to carry out a withdrawal of the fish there,” the director of the Land of the Leopard was quoted as saying.