Eye of the Fish Thoughts on the edge of the Earth, 100 meters above the river surface.
Every year he looks into the eyes of the young salmon. He has circumnavigated the globe seventeen times by helicopter and has developed an excellent view on life, through his camera lens and the helicopter window. He lives in the most beautiful place on earth and knows each sockeye by face. Bears strike a pose for him.
In place of an introduction, a parable One man, embittered with the world, wanted to be alone. Far, far away from people on the Kamchatka tundra along the foggy Pacific coast, he built himself in a small cabin and took up the life of a hermit. He hunted, fished and was relatively happy. Then came the unfortunate day when the world, from which he had escaped, caught up with him again.
On this day, the ocean surf was suddenly drowned out by the sound of an approaching helicopter. But it did not fly past. Instead, it circled above his little cabin and came in for a landing. The man did not come out to meet his visitors. On the contrary, he remained hidden. Living that far away from people, you stop living by their rules, whether you intend to or not. But what if this was the fisheries inspector? Or the game warden? The people in the helicopter — there were 15 of them — called out several times. But receiving no answer, they continued on — not to the cabin — but to the outhouse, which they visited one by one. Then they flew off, without leaving as much as a note to say thank you The man saw everything form his hiding spot. After a long while, he ran along the tundra, cursed, and shot his rifle into the air until the cartridge was emptied. After this, he returned to his eternal state of drunkenness. How Kurilskoye became his world Maslov never ran away from the world. In fact, it was the opposite. From childhood, he dreamed of traveling the globe. As a boy, he would wait for his uncle, a seaman, to return from his latest voyage with tales of foreign lands. Then, suddenly, he was in Vladivostok, a man of 20 years and a university student. As a future hydrologist, he was would do his field work and travel around the world. His dreams had come true. But the week before his world tour, Maslov got into a fight with his committee chair — and for good reason. But he was no longer allowed to go. “Fly with us to Kamchatka, instead,” they called to him. “What is Kamchatka, compared to the world?” he thought, but decided to fly anyway. He could have cared less. “My life is over,” he thought. When he saw the volcano rising above the city, he froze in his seat. When they flew over Kurilskoye Lake, his field site, he was stupefied. He felt as though he had arrived at the most beautiful place on Earth. He understood that he no longer needed to see the whole world. The expedition ended tragically. His entire party drowned. Maslov was able to pull a four year old child out of the water, but the child was dead. When he returned to Vladivostok and to his university, the first thing he saw was the obituary. His name was among the dead. No one had crossed his name off the list of the dead, even though an announcement had been made in Petropavlovsk, upon his return to the village. He was summarily arrested and thrown in jail. If he had survived, he must have been responsible for the tragedy. He was sentenced to two years, but they released him after a month and a half, seeing that he was innocent. Why wreck a guy's life? When Maslov gained his freedom, he felt that the lake was his destiny. It was where he needed to be. He left the university and flew to Kamchatka. His first act was to construct a memorial on the lakeshore. Since then, 25 years have passed. Today, the world knows that Kurilskoye Lake is Maslov’s place. And Kurilskoye Lake is known to the world.
How he looks into the eye of the young salmon Red caviar is baby salmon. The Pacific salmon family includes pink chum, masu, coho, sockeye and chinook. All of these are red fish, so named because of their red meat and their “matrimonial attire” that is “worn” during the spawning season. There is, however, only one breed of salmon that is officially called “red” salmon, because there are none redder. This is the sockeye. Kurilskoye Lake is the spawning ground for the largest population of sockeye salmon in the Asian Pacific. In the spring, Maslov digs up several immature nests for scientific study. The spring eggs look normal — round, red. But inside, the eye is alive and it is moving. For 25 years, Maslov has looked into the young salmon’s eye and continues to be astonished. He has tried to photograph the eye of the young salmon, as it gazes about. But it is not possible. It always moves away. The eggs then develop into a alevin with a yolk sac. From this alevin, salmon fry develop. After a year or two, the juvenile fingerlings will swim into the Ozernaya River, which flows out from Kurilskoye Lake into the Sea of Okhotsk. For three years they must rear in the expanses of the Pacific Ocean, to develop and grow fat. And then, it will be drawn by some mysterious instinct to travel thousands of kilometers and return to the headwaters of their home river as a large beautiful, silvery fish. This is where it first came into the world five or six years ago. Entering its home river, the fish stops eating and dons its spawning attire — becoming a bright red fish. It is implacable and swims upstream against the current, grazing its sides on the rapids, jumping through waterfalls. There, at the top, Maslov waits at Kurilskoye Lake. Every year he sits on the shore and watches over the ancient way of the sockeye. It seems there are more fish than water. They fill the entire river, as far as you can see. Here, in the river, the fish rest and prepare for the last push to the lake. The red color of the fish spines blends with the color of the sky, reflected in the water. Suddenly, one fish is startled and splashes about with its tail. All of a sudden, the water seems to boil. The boiling grows, and soon it is the whole river. A white milkiness is added to the color of fish and sky. The river eventually subsides, as one living organism. After spawning, the salmon will die. Death begets life, in an immediate sense. There are no parental rights observed in this case. The continuation of the species is the condition for death and its meaning. After spawning the river banks are covered with dead fish. Maslov has witnessed this metaphor of nature 25 times, and never grows tired of it. Every time he finds new meaning in it. And again, he awaits spring. How he descends to the river mouth The salmon swim upstream in fits and starts, allowing itself rest breaks. It swims ten kilometers a day. Every day of the salmon run (weather permitting) a strange helicopter appears in the Kamchatka sky. He selects the next river and approaches the river mouth. At a set low speed (less that 100 km per hour) and a low altitude (70 – 80 meters), he winds his way along, following each bend. It is as if he were mimicking the salmon, going to spawn.
This is what senior engineer for the Kamchatka Fisheries and Oceanography Research Institute (KamchatNIRO), Aleksey Viktorovich Maslov, does for his job — conducting aerial surveys and evaluating spawning returns. It all began with a sense of curiosity. For years, he sat at his Kurilskoye observation post, in the South Kurilskoye Reserve. His senior colleague, Kostya, would sometimes fly over to the lake while conducting aerial surveys. Maslov pleaded for Kostya to take him flying. He sat by the helicopter window and gaze intently into the river water. The first time, he counted three fish, which made two hundred with Kostya’s count. Then one time during the salmon run Kostya suddenly realized there was no one to take over his job. And a radio dispatch arrived at Kurilskoye Lake for Maslov: we’re sending a helicopter, and you are going to work. And so he started working. So far, he has worked thirteen seasons. If he had flown straight, instead of winding along the river meanders, he would have flown around the world 17 times. That is how many summer hours he has worked. Today, Maslov is the only man in Russia (perhaps the world) that holds this job. It could be said that it is a dying profession. There are no textbooks on the subject. There are no classes at the institute, and the fish are almost gone from Russia’s rivers. They exist only in Kamchatka — in this blessed region. For now, at least. But poachers unmercifully strip the fish of its roe, and government officials seek oil development investments in this place. Then, the Kamchatka that he knows, probably better than anybody, every little fold in the earth, will come to its end. He often thinks about this in between river surveys, when he does not need to be looking out the window. He closes his eyes, tunes out the sound, and thinks to himself: “Why am I flying? Whatever I do, I can’t change anything. Fish are a renewable resource and can be harvested forever. All you need are clean rivers — that's it. Kamchatka must not be dug up for its resources. No amount of oil or gold can earn such profits as salmon. We have the ability to feed Russia with clean and delicious fish. Instead, we are feeding China with Kamchatka nickel, and we have already thrown away several large salmon rivers for this purpose. Even Chinook — the most valuable of the salmon — is stripped for its roe and thrown away. During summer in the villages and countryside, it is like war time. Only old men and women are left. (Although there are less and less women, because of women’s poaching brigades.) The system everyone grew up with has the cops, the fish inspection services… Yet not too long ago, a warden was recently arrested on the edge of the Reserve with a barrel of fresh caviar. It happens even there. I can’t bear to look at it any longer, I can’t. At the tons of rotting fish, which the poachers abandon along the river bank. The waste is left along the tundra, which is cut with the tracks of oilmen’s off road vehicles — they’re not even pumping oil yet and are only doing exploratory work. I should quit this and concentrate on my beloved photography. I’m over it… Everyone is stealing, everyone lies. Well, not everyone. Sergey could not stand for it. He punched his senior boss in the face, right there on the steps of the administration building, for stealing and lying. Sergey was demoted and now holds the rank of fish inspector. But he has not left. Alright. I’ll fly, while I still can.” How he watched the same play twice The celebration at New Year’s is nice, but on Kamchatka, the biggest holiday is Fisherman’s Day. This is because every resident of the peninsula is somehow connected to the fish. It follows that
KamchatNIRO (the Kamchatka Fisheries and Oceanography Research Institute), where Maslov works, is the most important agency. KamchatNIRO's building is on the main square, behind the Lenin statue. There are actually more people working there than for the entire regional government. It was a few years ago, when KamchatNIRO had hit an important anniversary date, and they celebrated on an unbelievably grand scale. They rented the largest stage available — the State Drama Theater. The best restaurants in town were hired to prepare the banquet. They expected the Minister of Fisheries to attend from Moscow. It was too late when they heard that the Minister was not coming; the hall was packed, the tables were laden with piles of delicacies. The theater hall was not the problem. The people could be dispersed and go home, quietly and peacefully. But there was the food… Despite the Minister’s absence, the curtain was raised, and the performance was begun. For several hours, a parade of fisheries executives, government representatives, police officers, and others came onto the stage to give speeches and award expensive gifts. All of Kamchatka’s VIPs were present on that day at the State Drama Theater. Two weeks later, the Minister flew in from Moscow to Petropavlovsk. He came especially for KamchatNIRO. Could they have told him that he was too late, that they had already gone ahead with the celebration without him? No, they could not tell him. So the very same hall was filled and the tables were piled high once again, as if nothing had happened. Could the local directors, under the gaze of the minister, walk out on the stage empty-handed repeating that two weeks ago we already gave out valuable anniversary gifts? No, they could not. So they awarded expensive gifts once again. And perhaps the Minister never knew a thing. Rarely, had Maslov had more fun during a trip to the city. How he fed his film to the fire Maslov does not search for solitude. It is possible to find solitude in the city, perhaps more so. When his colleagues started buying cars, Maslov bought a camera. It cost as much as a car, and everyone looked at him askance. Why did he need a car at a lake? Now is a famous photographer worldwide. His photos appear on book covers. One of his shebear photos was featured in all the leading international nature magazines. One photograph was rejected with the explanation, “This is too beautiful. It cannot exist.” But with his living among the bears at the nature reserve and his many years photographing them, he has yet to publish a book of his photos — it would be too demand for him. One time, he threw his film in a big box, flew to Kurilskoye, and for three days, he fed his film to the campfire. He cut up the rest. This is strange; although his manner is hard, even rough, it is somehow bear-like. He does not fraternize with the bears. He is not in charge here. Rather, he is their guest — although he has been staying with them for 25 years now, since the time when he built the monument to those drowned on his expedition They say that the best bear photograph in the world was taken by the famous Japanese photographer Michio Hoshino. He longed to travel to Russia his entire life, and even wanted to live here. However, during the Soviet period, Kamchatka was closed to foreigners — he was not granted entry. When Kamchatka was opened to visitors, Michio flew to Kurilskoye and wanted to see Maslov. They had met at a photo exhibition in Germany and had been friends ever since. But, unfortunately, it was not to be.
Michio had not arrived alone — but a film crew came along. He photographed the bear, and the crew filmed him. The filming was successful, but the helicopter that was supposed to pick them up at Kurilskoye did not arrive on the scheduled day. The trip organizer decided to cut costs. The next day he needed to transport another group of foreigners to the lake, and he decided to combine the two flights. The Japanese man spent the night at the reserve compound. One of the film crew members snored loudly, and Michio slept in a tent nearby, instead of in the cabin. That night he was attacked by a bear. His life film became a postmortem memorial. Maslov also constructed a monument for the Japanese man — the second one at the lake. He thought about creating a third. This was not because he was preparing to die. No, this would come in its own time. Rather, he suddenly understood that he wanted to die here at the lake.
P.S. You can see bear photographs and other unearthly views of this amazing place at the edge of the earth in the New Year’s edition of Novaya Gazeta magazine. Ekaterina GLIKMAN December 4th, 2006 Novaya Gazeta Special Report http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2006/92/21.html
Translated from the Russian by Carl Pezold and Sibyl Diver