{"id":10841,"date":"2020-01-17T21:41:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T21:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first-pepperoni.flywheelsites.com\/?p=10841"},"modified":"2025-10-27T16:43:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:43:45","slug":"in-landlocked-mongolia-taimen-rivers-have-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildsalmoncenter.org\/2020\/01\/17\/in-landlocked-mongolia-taimen-rivers-have-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mongolia’s Taimen Rivers Have Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The massive, mysterious salmonid\u2014revered by conservationists and anglers alike\u2014is declining in Russia\u2019s Far East. A new Wild Salmon Center research project in Mongolia could help protect taimen across their range.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Dr. Matt Sloat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In early October, Dr. Matt Sloat found himself deep in the Mongolian outback, eating barbecue lamb by a campfire in the Amur Basin, surrounded by a host of locals. Some had spent the past few days fishing with him, but others wondered: who exactly was Sloat, and why was he here? He took the opportunity to explain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent the last several years studying taimen,\u201d said Dr. Sloat, Director of Science for the Wild Salmon Center, to a group that included WSC Russia Program Director Mariusz Wroblewski along with Mongolian regional administrators, game enforcers, members of a local taimen club, and fishing guides with Mongolia River Outfitters. \u201cMongolia just might turn out to be one of the best places to learn about this species<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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WSC Science Director and National Geographic Explorer<\/a> Dr. Matt Sloat takes a break from a scouting trip on Mongolia\u2019s Amur Basin to teach fly casting to local youth. (PC: WSC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the Russian Far East, Dr. Sloat told his dinner companions, remote taimen rivers like the Koppi and Tugur are fickle, fast-flowing, and routinely blown out by floods\u2014factors that severely limit scientific field research. That\u2019s a problem for Dr. Sloat, who relies on field data to inform scientific recommendations for salmon conservation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sakhalin taimen from Sarufutsu River, Japan (Satoshi Adachi); Siberian taimen in Tugur River, Russia (WSC) and Mongolia (Mongolia River Outfitters).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Taimen could use the help. The elusive apex river predators\u2014the largest species of the salmon family\u2014include both mammoth Siberian taimen<\/a> (found in Mongolia and the northern Russian mainland) and Sakhalin taimen<\/a> (found further south on the mainland, and on Sakhalin and Hokkaido islands). Both are rapidly declining across their range due to poaching and habitat destruction<\/strong>. Understanding their behavior, says Dr. Sloat, is key to protecting them.<\/p>\n\n\n

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WSC Russia Program Director Mariusz Wroblewski releases a young taimen back into a river in Mongolia’s Amur Basin. (PC: WSC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cMegafish are in sharp decline globally, and taimen are no exception<\/strong>,\u201d Dr. Sloat explains. \u201cDespite these concerns, we know very little about these fish. And that hinders our ability to safeguard their future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Mongolian taimen have different diets than their chum-and-pink-salmon-devouring Russian counterparts, the populations are genetically similar. And crucially, Mongolian taimen are far more accessible<\/strong>\u2014to fishermen, who easily land them in Mongolia\u2019s clearer, calmer rivers, and to scientists like Dr. Sloat.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tulga Tumenjargal, a fishing guide with Mongolia River Outfitters, stands in front of a camp yurt in traditional Mongolian dress. The company will help WSC coordinate several taimen research trips in Mongolia in 2020. (PC: WSC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That ease of access is why WSC is partnering with Mongolia River Outfitters and local administrators to conduct a first-of-its-kind taimen research project over the course of 2020<\/strong>. During the October scouting trip, Dr. Sloat and WSC\u2019s partners discussed logistics for the coming year\u2019s planned field work in the Amur and Yenisei River Basins: spawning studies in spring, and summertime monitoring programs to track taimen abundance, feeding behavior, and river temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research, Dr. Sloat says, aims to understand how taimen spawn, feed, and grow in rivers\u2014both with, and without, the marine nutrients provided by salmon. Mongolian taimen serve as a control case for a key question: what happens to Russian taimen if Pacific salmon disappear from their foodweb<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the trip, Dr. Sloat and Wroblewski were energized by local enthusiasm for this research, from the local vice-governor, who joined the group for the barbecue dinner, to the youngsters from an after school ecology club who turned out one day for a lesson in fly casting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During the expedition, Wild Salmon Center’s Dr. Matt Sloat and Mariusz Wroblewski helped teach fly casting to a dozen members\u2014all girls\u2014of a local after-school ecology club. (PC: WSC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing on the river was terrific,\u201d says Dr. Sloat, reflecting on the trip. \u201cBut my overwhelming impression was of the people, how engaged they were in stewardship, from those living nomadically, grazing animals on the steppe, to the river guides who depend on healthy taimen populations. I was extremely impressed by the reverence they showed for Mongolian rivers and taimen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dr. Matt Sloat (left), Mariusz Wroblewski (center), and Dr. Mihael Skopets (far right) pose with members of a Mongolian youth ecology club.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That reverence fills Dr. Sloat with hope. Cultural respect for natural systems\u2014together with research that better illuminates taimen biology and behavior\u2014will be key, he says, to protecting this mysterious, magnificent megafish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The research aims to understand how taimen spawn, feed, and grow in rivers\u2014both with and without salmon. Mongolian taimen serve as a control case for a key question: what happens to Russian taimen if salmon disappear?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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