Indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Andes

On a recent trip to Ecuador, I spent time exploring communities of the Andes Mountains. Ecuador is a small country in South America, but it is also one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world. In less than a day, you can travel from the lush tropical jungles to the Andes Mountains or the Pacific Ocean coast. Prominent inhabitants of the Ecuadorian Andean […]

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Inside a Kamchatka salmon-processing plant

See also: “Kamchatka: Coastal sockeye salmon fishery“ and “Kamchatka: the in-river sockeye salmon fishery“. Ozernaya River sockeye salmon is one of the most highly prized salmon fisheries in the Russian Far East. It is the largest sockeye salmon stock in Asia. The fishery is well managed, especially compared to other Russian salmon fisheries. The escapement, or the returning fish that have successfully passed the fishing grounds without

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Barack Obama Inauguration: 4 years ago

Four years ago, I was visiting my family in NYC. At the last minute, a friend and I decided to take a night bus to Washington, D.C. to witness the commotion of the first Barack Obama inauguration. Here’s the original post about that even: http://www.mihaelblikshteyn.com/2009-01-27/obama-inauguration-the-people/ I decided to dig up a few more photos from Obama’s first inauguration that I never posted before, as well as re-edit

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Kamchatka: the in-river sockeye salmon fishery

See also: “Kamchatka: Coastal sockeye salmon fishery“. Unlike the salmon fisheries in the Untied States, Russian commercial fishermen catch a substantial proportion of salmon in rivers. On Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, the regional government has recently leased fishing parcels, both coastal and in-river, to Russian fishing companies for 20 years. One of the goals for the long-term leases was to incentivize local fishermen to maintain

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Kamchatka: Coastal sockeye salmon fishery

Just like in Alaska, the US Pacific Northwest and northern California, Pacific salmon are the keystone species to the Russian Far East. Unlike the Pacific Northwest, six species of salmon spawn in the Russian Far East. Masu, or cherry salmon, is the 6th species only found in the western Pacific Ocean along east Asia. Pink, chum and sockeye salmon are abundant and commercially important. With

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