Karelian mysticism: a blogger found a fish dump in the taiga, but the check did not see it

The last straw was the discovery in the forest near the lake of a landfill with fish waste, which not only pollutes the soil, but also attracts bears.

Alexander Dybin

At the end of November, a hunter and blogger Roman Maleyev spoke about the situation, who stumbled upon a clearing with a burial of fish waste in the taiga near Lake Unus in the Muezersky district of Karelia. The man filmed a burial ground, dug up a clearing and drainage pipes that drain liquid waste into a swamp.

“The smell of rotting fish attracts bears and other animals, it’s not that it’s dangerous, the main thing is that the soil is polluted, and animals and birds spread it, the fish just don’t die,” Roman Maleev told Novye Izvestia, “she decomposes, all this incomprehensible infection is spread through the forest by animals.

After the video was published, the supervisory authorities drew attention to the situation. A couple of weeks later, a whole troop of inspectors left in the vicinity of Lake Unus. The blogger also ended up in the forest with a check. Since in his video he did not name the exact coordinates of the landfill, without a local guide, it would simply not have been found. By the time the inspection arrived, they tried to hide the landfill, it was clear that machinery was working on the site: there were traces of caterpillars, the site was filled with sand. But most importantly, the inspectors did not burn with a great desire to get to the bottom of the truth.

“I showed them a place where it smelled of rotten fish, where there were traces of animals that were digging the ground, animals would not dig just like that, they found a drainage pipe,” the blogger said, “but it was as if everyone was there with their eyes closed. No one took a shovel, I offered to dig up the ground and see what was underground, but no one did this.

The prosecutor's office of the Republic of Karelia, in response to a request from Novye Izvestia, replied that during the check they did not find any traces of a landfill.

“Based on information previously published on the Internet about the unauthorized disposal of biological waste (fish) on the territory of the Muezersky district, the prosecutor's office of the republic organized supervisory measures. During the visit to the place, no fish, fish fragments, fish waste were found, and therefore no measures were taken by the prosecutor's response,” the prosecutor's office said.

Sawing bridges, burning wagons

Residents of the village of Ondozero have been fighting trout farmers since 2019, when they learned that a trout farm was to appear on the small lake Unus. This immediately caused dissatisfaction, and then violations were discovered: the site was given out without public discussions, and the lake itself is too small for such a load and not flowing.

“As far as we know, the fish farm was issued for 30 years for only 230,000 rubles,” said Roman Maleev. - When we began to figure out how it happened that a farm would be formed on a small, stagnant lake, unexplored by scientists, a lot of violations surfaced. Starting from a scientific conclusion, ending with the fact that there were no publications in the media, there were no meetings with local residents, and much more. We collected signatures from residents, and no one voted "yes". People are already catching pike with red meat, because there are a lot of chemicals in the feed, the local fish eat this food, and the pike eat the fish.”

According to the blogger, the residents of the village turned to scientists from the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences for help, who confirmed that the reservoir is not suitable for industrial trout farming.

“The water in the lake will be replaced by water from such a small catchment for decades, which is unacceptable for fish farming. I would also like to emphasize that this lake has never been considered for fish farming, since it belongs to very small reservoirs. We have a lot of questions for the authors of the RVU: how did they even allow fish farming and how did they determine such a large volume of trout farming (175 tons) with such a small lake area? - the document says. “This is almost six times more than a lake that is completely unsuitable for this purpose, and most importantly unprofitable for trout breeders, can withstand ... Unus Lake is completely unsuitable for fish farming, which will actually destroy it and turn it into a swamp.”

Lake Unus is located away from roads and villages, you can only get there by dirt road. Perhaps this remoteness attracted trout breeders? But at the same time, dissatisfaction with such a neighborhood has already resulted in the fact that the unknown sawed up a new bridge leading to the farm, and also set fire to the change house.

When the degree of dissatisfaction reached the regional authorities, they proposed to transfer the fish farm from this lake to another. Such a format is not provided for by law, in order to save the reservoir and reassure the inhabitants, a gentleman's agreement between fish farmers and officials is needed, but so far they are only talking about it.

“We even wrote to the president and received an answer - an agreement of the parties,” says Roman Maleev, “but none of the defendants in the civil conflict speaks to us on the merits of the issue. They only hammer like woodpeckers: everything is legal. What is the legitimacy? Behind the backs of the locals to trade the purest lake with valuable species of fish for 230 thousand rubles? There is no point, there is a desire to fill the pockets with loot, because they live by the principle: after us, at least a flood! Yes, there is no coastline with the village, but we have vital interests - we save the heritage of our ancestors, which has always been preserved and appreciated. The authorities are trying to justify their actions by the desire to attract "penny to the budget", while losing a unique body of water. Understand, people would not have risen for Unus if they saw the legitimacy of actions, but there is none. In replies, officials deceive even the prosecutor, to say nothing about us.”

This is not the first conflict

Lake Unus is not the first body of water where a trout farm was set up and caused discontent among the residents. There are several such hot spots in the republic and the situations are very similar: fish farms are given out without the knowledge of residents, and then they don’t know what to do with it. It is legally very difficult to take back a site. Novye Izvestia reported on the situation in the village of Vatnavolok on the shores of Lake Onega, whose residents and deputies tried to officially launch the referendum procedure in order to eliminate the trout farm.

“We, who live here, see a completely different picture - there is a systematic destruction of the Karelian lakes. Science is trying to call for reason, stipulating limits and volumes, but who hears them? - says Roman Maleev, - how did our forest lake get into this trout batch? Of course, they were sure that the small Karelian village would not even raise its head, would remain silent. There are a lot of trout farms in Karelia. There are constant clashes between the local population and entrepreneurs. Firstly, the ecosystem of the lake on which the farm is located is disturbed, and secondly, the water becomes undrinkable, because it simply stinks of fish, and a fatty film floats on the surface. The fish that the locals have always caught is dying. And in the forest, here and there, they find burials like ours. All complaints come with replies, and when trout farms are created, local residents who have lived on these lakes for centuries are simply not informed, although they must by law.

One of the main claims of the residents is that such a neighborhood spoils the water in the lakes. And there are simply no other sources of drinking water in the villages.

According to Roman Maleev, the inhabitants of the village of Ondozero were still able to record the violations of trout breeders. Rybnadzor admitted that the cages were located in the wrong place.