Scientists and American sport fishermen are working to save the giant Siberian salmon, the taimen, which can reach two meters in length and weigh up to 100 kilograms. Its existence is threatened by poaching and habitat destruction. The Wall Street Journal (via this link) says the group has persuaded Mongolian Buddhist monks to help them to preach preservation by using their moral authority to persuade the locals to stop poaching and to start to protect their wildlife. They showed the monks that they were not killing the taimen. Instead, they are practicing catch-and-release fishing. And to gain monks' support, they promised to restore a monastery destroyed 70 years ago. Will the plan work? I don't know. But at least it's a very unusual combination of people decided to save a river and its wildlife. Read more...
[Note for WSJ subscribers: you can also find the article here.]
And now, who exactly are these fishermen?
Tourists such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have paid thousands of dollars to catch and release the giant fish here, a spot famous among a global fraternity of fly fishermen. American companies like Sweetwater Travel Co. of Livingston, Mont., a participant in the conservation project, charge tourists about $5,000 each for a week of fishing.
But poachers and gold miners exploring the river valley and nearby mountains are threatening the fish. Losing the taimen would be a blow to this poor country, because sport fishermen provide one of its few significant sources of foreign currency.
So an international group including Sweetwater Travel, the International Finance Corp., the private lending arm of the World Bank, and the Taimen Conservation Fund, based in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, are putting more than $2million in this conservation project.
And here is how they won the Buddhist monks support.
To win over the monks, project supporters had to explain the nuances of catch-and-release fishing, and sell them on the benefits of allowing Western anglers to hook the giant fish over and over again.
To help the monks overcome their aversion to the sport, project organizers offered an attractive incentive: help in restoring a local monastery destroyed nearly 70 years ago in a government purge. Buddhism was banned by Mongolia's communist government until 1990. Now, the nation's monks are eager to rebuild their ranks.
So now they are combing ancient texts, many written in Tibetan, to find statements that promote environmental virtues, but don't preclude catch-and-release fishing. Gantulga, who grew up near the taimen's waters and went on to study at the national monastery, is one of a younger generation of Mongolians more open to blending traditional beliefs with contemporary tastes.
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Here is a photograph of Gantulga, a Mongolian monk (center), American scientist Zeb Hogan (left) and sport-fishing guide Dan Vermillion (right). (Credit: Sudeep Chandra, University of Nevada, Reno). |
[Gantulga] is among the few who can translate the area's ancient sutras into modern Mongolian. He carries prayer beads, meditates, and fasts. He also carries a cellphone, and on a recent plane flight, had no problem recognizing a Mongolian techno-music boy band seated behind him.
In this older article, "Can Angling Save World's Largest Salmon?," National Geographic gave more details about the fishing method and how Westerners are ecouraged to go after an endangered salmon.
That might seem a contradiction, but only artificial flies are used, not dead rodents, and Dan Vermillion, [from Sweetwater Travel,] says fish are released unharmed after capture.
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And this one shows "fisher Helen Sarakinos and a 49-inch (124-centimeter) taimen she had just landed in Mongolia. A radio and acoustic tag was implanted into this fish, so that it may be tracked for the next five years." (Credit: Jake Vander Zanden, Taimen Conservation Fund). |
"All our flies [have] single, barbless hooks which is the only way you can run a true catch-and-release program," said Vermillion, of Sweetwater Travel, a fly-fishing outfitter which runs trips around the world.
Vermillion's fly-fishing clients each pay around U.S. $5,200. A concession fee is then paid to fund conservation work and enforcement efforts aimed at reducing poaching. Local Mongolians run these river patrols.
Now the project organizers want to protect other wildlife, even if there is no guarantee to save the taimen.
"Since taimen live in a river whose health depends on the health of whole watershed, large parts of the watershed will need to be protected as well," said Sudeep Chandra, a limnologist at the University of Nevada, Reno. "Thus, money generated from the concession programs is not only intended to be used by the enforcement teams to protect this fish, but to prevent the poaching of other wildlife, such as the red deer and wolf."
So will this preservation project work? I don't know, but here is Gantulga's in the Wall Street Journal.
Gantulga says he has come to believe that catch-and-release fishing is "acceptable" and serves his religion's larger goals. "The project's work may last several years, but it's doable," he says. "Mine will last a lifetime."
Sources: Peter Wonacott, The Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2004; James Owen, National Geographic News, August 19, 2004
7:06:46 PM
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