The wild salmon rivers of the Russian Far East: science, conservation and fly fishing

The vast wilderness rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the wider Russian Far East produce half of the world's salmon. These prodigious runs support some of the largest densities of brown bears in the world, the spectacular Steller's eagle and many other species. The rivers themselves are remote and difficult to navigate, but hold secrets to the bioproductivity of wild salmon rivers everywhere. Over the last two decades, an intrepid group of Russian and American fly fisherman and field scientists have been exploring these watersheds to unlock their mysteries, finding new races of salmon, char and a giant trout, the Siberian taimen, that's rumored to grow large enough to feed on the adult salmon.

At the same time, the logging of forests, mining and an epidemic of salmon poaching has begun to threaten the salmon runs. Working with local government and Russian conservation leaders, the Wild Salmon Center has been securing the protection of millions to acres, reforming commercial salmon fisheries and opening up new rivers to catch and release fly fishing.

Guido Rahr will screen the short documentary film "River Tigers", and then will take us to this last frontier and its incomparable salmon, trout and char ecosystems.

Under Mr. Rahr’s leadership, Wild Salmon Center has developed scientific research, habitat protection and fisheries improvement projects in dozens of rivers in Japan, the Russian Far East, Alaska, British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest, raising over $100 million in grants, establishing eight new conservation organizations, and protecting three million acres of habitat including public lands management designations and eight new large scale habitat reserves on key salmon rivers across the Pacific Rim.

Learn more about the Wild Salmon Center at:
https://wildsalmoncenter.org/

Hosted by Club Member Deirdre Brennan.