Kamchatka Project Update

Friends and Supporters of the Kamchatka Project,

It has been an exciting time amongst the group with many updates to tell you about. Before getting to some of our recent achievements, we want to inform you of the team’s decision to postpone the mission to Kamchatka until 2010. This decision is largely based on a team consensus that with this additional time our objectives will be more fully realized. From the moment we announced this project, we have been overwhelmed by the amount of positive support and opportunity presented by this exploration, and we anticipate that adding a year to the overall project will further advance and refine our objectives.

Now on to some of the many recent opportunities and achievements the project has accomplished lately. On April 8th, Mountain Equipment Co-op (more commonly known as MEC) of Canada awarded us with a $1000 grant toward the project. MEC is a tremendous organization in its ability and willingness to give back to its community, and we are honored to have them on board with the Kamchatka Project.

We also had our National Geographic Inquiry Grant application approved. This is essentially the gate keeping process of National Geographic’s grant process, and getting this approval is a major accomplishment in itself. We are currently working on the more extensive application to pursue an Expedition Grant with this incredibly prestigious organization.

We also added another member to the team – Jeff Hazboun. Jeff is working on his PhD in physics, is an accomplished expedition kayaker, and is now working hard as the team’s primary science coordinator. His experience as a field biologist will provide proficiency in fisheries and wildlife management research techniques and facilitate our communication with scientists researching the salmon of Kamchatka.

While the economic state of our nation and the world has been quite tenuous lately, the support of our friends and supporters has kept our spirits high. We continue to receive kind donations from friends and friends of friends, and we truly appreciate these contributions as our primary source of funding, which will ultimately make this project a reality.

Thank you for your help, your interest, and your involvement.

The Kamchatka Project
Andy, Bryan, Ethan, Jay, Jeff, Robert, and Shane

Meeting with Wild Salmon Center

Jay, Ethan, Roman, Rob, & Tricia at WSC headquarters Photo: Guido Rahr

Yesterday afternoon Jay, Rob, and I had a super productive meeting with a few folks at the Wild Salmon Center in Portland.

The Wild Salmon Center's stated mission is to: "identify, understand and protect the best wild salmon ecosystems of the Pacific Rim. We devise and implement practical strategies, based on the best science, to protect forever these extraordinary places and their biodiversity." One of their major focus areas is Kamchatka, home to between a sixth and a quarter of the world's salmon breeding grounds, where they work closely with Russian NGO Wild Fishes and Biodiversity Foundation to research and protect salmon and other fish habitats in many of the pristine watersheds throughout the peninsula.

WSC's direct involvement with the rivers of this relatively mysterious peninsula, their extremely successful research and conservation campaigns, and the proximity of their headquarters to us in Oregon made them appear as an obvious partner to us from the first conversations we've had about the Kamchatka Project.

We've been brainstorming about how to shape this expedition for a little over a month now, and have gotten pretty excited about focusing on salmon-related conservation for several reasons. First, all five of us on the expedition reside in ecosystems defined by Pacific salmon, and lead lives that are directly related to these fish. As kayakers, we go the same places, do many of the same things, and are affected by the same policies and technologies that affect these cornerstone species. Second, salmon are the primary factor driving the economy of Kamchatka. From everything we've learned, it would be impossible to go to the peninsula and NOT focus on salmon. From legal fishing operations, to subsistence harvesting, to sport fishing, to poaching for caviar, nearly all of Kamchatka's residents have a long term vested interest in keeping their streams healthy. And as home to between a sixth and a quarter of the entire world's salmon stocks, Kamchatka deserves the attention of us all. Third, by giving the story of the Kamchatka Project a broader focus than kayaking alone, we exponentially increase our target audience of media outlets and potential donors.
More to come...