The Kamchatka Peninsula because of its remoteness has become a household term. Few Russians come here to relax and enjoy the beauties of harsh nature. But there are a lot of them. It is here that the Olyutor Bay is known for being home to the Olyutor lake herring, a welcome dish on gourmet tables around the world. Kamchatka is also famous for its volcanoes, of which there are about 300 pieces, a unique flora and fauna, and most importantly, people who live in these far from paradise conditions.
In our article, we will talk about a small corner of Kamchatka - the Olyutor Bay, named after the ancient people of the Alutor residents who lived in these parts, but who had already disappeared as an independent ethnic group.
Olyutor Bay where is it located?
As you know, Kamchatka is a rather large peninsula in the east of our country, a bit like a fish stretching its body from north to south. From the side of the continent it is washed by the Sea of Okhotsk, and from the opposite side, the Bering Sea. It is in its water area that the Olyutor Bay is located. It is located in the north-eastern part of Kamchatka, between two peninsulas: Gowena and Olyutorsky. There are two settlements near the bay: the small village of Apuka and the village a little larger - Pahachi.
Geographic characteristics
Travelers are impressed by the harsh and at the same time bright, memorable beauty of Olyutor Bay. We begin the description of its features with mean numbers. The bay has the shape of an arc, deployed to the south. Inland, it crashed 83 km, has a width of 228 km, and a depth of 1 km. Its shores are dissected by small and large capes, of which about one and a half dozen.
The most famous are Baptized by Fire, Remains, Terrible, Lied. Their shores are mostly rocky, in many places inaccessible and only in some places covered with sparse vegetation. About a dozen rivers and streams carry their waters to the bay. The largest are Pahach and Apuka. In the upper reaches, they are mountainous, but in the middle and lower reaches they become lowland rivers. Apuka in its floodplain forms an old woman and a pond. The coastline of the Olyutor Bay is heterogeneous. So, in the eastern part it is lower.
There are two estuaries - Pakhachinsky and Evekun, and two lagoons - Anana and Kavacha. The western part is more rocky and impregnable, bordered by the Pylginsky ridge up to 1357 meters high. There are several small bays - Lavrov, Southern Deep and Doubt. Also in the western part there are several lagoons, including Kaukt and Tantikun.
Climate
Olyutor Bay lies in a subarctic climate belt of the Dfc type (according to Köppen). In summer, the temperature near the surface of the water rises to + 10 ° C, at a depth of more than 50 m it is never higher than minus 1.7 ° C. In winter, the same temperature in the upper water layers.
Salinity in the Olyutor Bay is about 22 ppm. The rivers flowing into it, have been covered with ice since October, and open not earlier than April, forming floods. By the first days of December, a special type of coastal ice appears in the bay itself - landfast ice, which holds until the end of April. On land in the bay area are often foggy. Summer is short, about two to three months with average temperatures + 10 ° C, winter is long, with frosts down to -20 ° C.
Flora and fauna
For dozens of species of animals and plants, Kamchatka has become the home. Olyutor Bay, for example, is known for a special kind of herring, found only here. They simply called her - olutorskaya. Previously, the fishing of this fish was uncontrollable, because of which its abundance approached a critical threshold. Now herring is extracted in strict accordance with the laws.
To protect nature in the north of the peninsula, a reserve was created, called Koryaksky. Part of the Olyutor Bay, namely, the Gowen Peninsula and Lavrov Bay, also belong to its territory, and in total there are about 340 thousand hectares of protected land in the named area.
Colonies of dozens of birds nest on the rocks of the bay, many of which are in the Russian Red Book. Here you can find peregrine falcon, piscule, pink, gray-winged and white gulls, geese, gyrfalcons. In addition to the herring, other marine inhabitants live in the waters of the bay - flatfish, chanterelles, and slingshot. In the bay of Lavrov there lives a sea hare, spotted seal, and in summer walruses and sea lions swim here. In the rivers flowing into the Olyutor Bay, several species of red fish spawn - chum, sockeye salmon, pink salmon, coho salmon, and chinook salmon. Kamchatka brown bears often get it. Also among the terrestrial fauna there are foxes, wolves, ermines, wolverines, hares and ground squirrels.
The flora of the coast of the Olyutor Bay is not rich and consists mainly of lichens and shrubby willows, birches, alders. Forbs here in summer are buoying, and in the fall lingonberries, cloudberries, princess, blueberries and a lot of mushrooms ripen.
Economic activity
Olyutor Bay is the main place for the extraction of the same name herring. Previously, several fish canneries operated on the coast, but now they have been closed. This immediately affected the population.
So, not far from the bay are located the small village of Apuka, in which there are only 252 inhabitants, and Pahachi, which was considered until 1994 the town. Not so long ago, infrastructure was actively developing here, new streets appeared, houses were built, even the local airfield worked. But as soon as the fish canning factory was closed, the number of inhabitants decreased ten times. Now there are 388 people left. By the way, they can get to the district center only by helicopter.
Ship named after the bay
The national economy has special vessels engaged in the transportation of refrigerated goods - fish oil, flour, packaging materials for fishing vessels, as well as fuel, water and provisions. One of them is the transport refrigerator "Olyutor Bay".
It was built in 1985 in the GDR. A ship is registered in Vladivostok. Its length is 153 meters, a width of 22 meters, a displacement of 17375 tons, and a speed of 14.5 knots. This ship received dubious fame due to unlawful acts regarded as smuggling. The bottom line was that the ship's captain drove through the customs in the port of Nakhodka 1283 tons of fuel and 606 tons of fuel oil as cargo, not subject to customs duties, and, bypassing the laws, sold it all to other vessels. As a result, the illegal profit amounted to over 16 million rubles. Now the transport prosecutor's office of Nakhodka is dealing with this matter.