AGAINST ELECTRIC FISHING RODS

Representatives of a student campaign team acting at the Chuprovo village’s library as part of the Model River Mezen project spoke about negative impact of electric fishing rods on fish populations of the Vashka and Mezen rivers during their tour of adjacent villages in July.

It has become a good tradition for the students to perform in rural Recreational Centers in Udora district in summer. The Chuprovo library gathered a campaign team among youth again on 22 July 2018 and visited nearby villages along the Vashka. On the stages of Puchkom, Muftyuga and Chuprovo clubs they showed the fairy-tale About How Vovochka Was Looking for Life-Giving Water. Prior the performance they gave educational lectures on the hazards of electric fishing rods.

Viktoria Tushkanova’s solo

According to the fishing legislation usage of electric rods for fishing is forbidden in water basins of general use. However, not all people know about negative effect of fishing with electric current.

Fish affected by electric field loses reproductive functions, even though it does not kill it. As ichthyologic research proves, the voltage of 90V is hazardous for fish and fish eggs, while electric rods have the voltage of 1.5 kV. Such an impact leaves no chance for fish eggs or other living organisms within the radius of several dozen meters. The biggest problem is that a fisherman cannot pick all the fish affected, because some fish float on the surface after the shock (ruff, chub, nerfling), and some species drown and lie on the bottom of rivers without movement (carp, pike, trout). Thus, having obtained dozens kilos of fish, a fisherman leaves the same amount of fish dying in the water. If you see a lot of fishes swimming awkwardly sidewise, it is the first sign that a poacher with an electric fishing rod has been here.

All this information was provided by campaigners. Unfortunately, according to Vashka public activists, fishing with electric rods is a frequent case on the Vashka. That is why Vazhgort activists lead by Valentina Ekimova took a responsibility to conduct  raids throughout the summer and stop any detected use of electric rods.

This year, the campaign team headed by Zhanna Korovina, director of the Chuprovo library, included university and school students – Kristina Kazarinova, Viktoria Tushkanova, Milena Shlopova, Pavel Politov, and the teacher of Edva secondary general school Natalya Politova.

Vovochka meeting the Old Man Khottabych

A scene from an environmental fairy-tale

“In previous years campaign team performances were too global – we spoke about environmental pollution by industrial companies, waste accumulation, poaching, and all that dissipated the attention of the audience. This year we showed just one ecological sketch in Komi, and I think that the spectators understood better the idea we wanted to highlight,” Kristina Kazarinova from Syktyvkar Forest Institute said.

The end of the performance was enthusiastic; the campaigners sang Komi and Russian songs raising positive emotions in the audience. Even though the topic of the performance was sad, people were leaving the audience space in a good mood.

The audience space was full