Page 33 - Сахалину с любовью : литературный сборник

ЛУИЗА ВАН АЛЕНБУРГ
Garbusha (Королевство Нидерландов)

Луиза ван Аленбург. Путешествие
I wondered before coming out here: Is it true what they
say about Sakhalin? Thousands of salmon and bears that eat
them? I did not believe it at first, it was our first summer on the
island and we had not seen a Salmon alive. It is said that locals
and expats alike have hundreds of recipes to prepare salmon.
But I took it for one of those stories that you have to take with a
grain of salt. That probably explained the fact that the salmon I
bought at the market was actually quite salty.
Now finally I have seen the masses myself. And if
this is true, the part about the bears will probably be true as
well. The other day we drove to Ochotskoye and were
surprised to see many dead Salmon on the dirtroad. We
assumed they had dropped of the pickup trucks of fishermen
as we could not believe that other story: that it is mostly the
caviar that is wanted, not the whole fish.
We reached the shore and you can not believe the
amount of salmon that was frantically trying to reach the 'mating
grounds' upriver. We were able to see them up close as they
were trying to wriggle themselves over the sand banks! It was
an unbelievable sight! I looked it up on the internet and it is
definitely a Oncorhynchus gorbuscha or Pink salmon. At the
market they sell it as Garbusha, so that makes sense.
We met a Russian family who were cooking a nice
salmon stew over a small fire. The river seemed to be alive
with fish. They explained that we could cross the river to see
the real fishermen at work on the beach a bit further. I was
reluctant to drive through while all these fish were on their
way up, but other cars crossed the river as well. We found the
fishermen, they were easy to spot. Nets weighing 2 tons were
lifted with a huge crane and dropped in the big truck. When the
truck left the beach it left a trail of half dead fish behind…

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