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Why go to Baikal? Listvyanka and
Big-Kats
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For the Russian people Lake Baikal is a natural
treasure. Located in Siberia near the Mongolian border, and surrounded by
mountains, forests and wild rivers, Baikal is an immense and breathtaking
area of physical beauty. Baikal holds twenty percent of the earth's fresh
water and harbors more endemic species of plants and animals than any other
lake in the world. Fed by 336 rivers and streams including the Angara,
Barguzin, Selenga, Turka and Snezhnaya, the lake holds fifty species of fish
including bullhead, sturgeon and omul. A glimpse into the lake's clear water
is enough to convince anyone that nature not only exists in Siberia, it
flourishes. The lake's surrounding wild mountains and rivers make the Lake
Baikal region an ideal area for engaging in an array of outdoor pursuits
including hiking, climbing, whitewater sports, skiing and nature
photography. There are also many regional cultural attractions. Today, as in
the past, Baikal remains a crossroads of cultures where native Sayats still
herd reindeer and Buryat people maintain many of their old traditions. The
wilds of Siberia also offer a gateway to Mongolia and its ancient and
amazing culture. It is hard to imagine that these wilderness areas and
exotic cultures are only a five to seven hour jet ride from Moscow or
Khabarovsk.
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The following quote by Erdeni Ulanov, the Director
of the Buryat National Section of the UNESCO-sponsored, Along the Routes of
Great Migrations of Mankind International Association, is an except from the
Russian magazine, International Affairs, May, 1993 issue.
Baikal is not just a lake, but something greater
and deeper. It is bottomless and majestic, but not an ocean or sea in which
man loses all his visible bearings. There we sense the greatness of nature,
feeling at one with it, not alienated from it, which is a rare phenomenon in
developed countries. Baikal is a bridge to space. You must see Baikal to be
able to say what it is like.
Siberia makes up more than 75 percent of Russia's
land mass. Siberia's 12,488,400 km2 domain reaches from the Ural mountains
on the west across to the Pacific ocean, stretching from Kazakhstan,
Mongolia through China and up to the Arctic Ocean. It is larger than Canada,
the second largest continent. More than 34.8 million people (23 percent of
the Russian population) live in Siberia. Three out of four Siberians live in
urban areas, the remainder practice nomadic herding (in the northern
regions) or live as farmers and hunters in the region's isolated areas.
While more than thirty recognized nationalities live in Siberia, among them
Buryat and Mongolian, Siberia is a vastly underpopulated region. Siberia is
so immense that a person standing on the beach in Maine is closer to Moscow
than a person standing on the eastern coast of Siberia.
The name Siberia comes from sibir, a Mongolian
word for "sleeping land." In the early 1700's, Siberia became a place of
exile. It continued to be "the last stop" for criminals and political
extremists until this century. In more recent times, from the beginning of
the twentieth century, most Siberians find that their ancestry stems from
free migration into the area when many Russians settled along the main
transportation line, the Trans-Siberian Railway. These new pioneers
contributed to the growth of industry in the cities throughout the region,
including Irkutsk, Chita and Ulan Ude.
While almost everyone thinks of Siberia as
desolate and cold because Siberia covers a massive amount of space, the
weather varies according to location and altitude. While the temperature
plunges to -35C near Lake Baikal in January, in Omyakon, in eastern Siberia,
the temperature can reach a bitter -71C. Eastern Siberia and the Far East
experience some of the coldest winter temperatures in the Northern
Hemisphere. Permafrost covers almost two-thirds of Siberia and is 1.6 km
deep in some places.
Lake Baikal is between 51 29'N and 55 46'N
latitude and 103 41'E and 109 57'E longitude. It is about 636 km long and
about 80 km wide. Its broadest point is located between the villages of
Onguryon on the Western shore and Ust-Barguzin on the eastern shore, and its
narrowest point is between the Selenga River Delta and the opposite Western
shore. The length of the coastline is about 2,100 km. There are 30 rocky
islands on the lake, the biggest one being Olkhon Island which is more than
130 km2 in area. Legend has it that Olkhon Island is the birthplace of
Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan. Compared with the other great lakes of the
world, Lake Baikal is enormous. Lake Tanganyika is half of Baikal's size,
and Lake Ladoga is 23 times smaller. Baikal's volume, at 23,600 km3,
is greater than any other fresh water lake and makes approximately 20
percent of the world's surface fresh water. As a point of comparison, if you
were to drain Lake Baikal, it would take the Great Lakes of the United
States: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario to refill the empty
basin.
At 1,620 meters, nearly a mile deep, it is without
doubt the world's deepest lake. The surface area of all the tributaries that
feed lake Baikal is about 560,000 km2. Of the 336 rivers and streams flowing
into Baikal, only one, the Angara, flows out from it. At different times,
researchers have counted varying numbers of tributaries, up to 544 depending
on the amount of precipitation during the year.
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The creation of Lake Baikal began following a
geological cataclysm. Thermal energy deep within the Earth produced tectonic
movements, shifting the Earth both horizontally and vertically and producing
faults and rifts. These movements created the system of mountainous ridges
and deep valleys extending from the North to the East and carved the lake's
deep stone basin. Over thousands of years, the basin was filled by water
from rain, rivers and streams.
The Lake Baikal basin includes three underwater
depressions. The first, in the South, extends from Kultuk Bay to the Selenga
River Delta (6,890 km2). The Middle Baikal Depression reaches
from the Selenga River Delta to the underwater Academic Mountain Ridge
(11,295 km2). The Northern Baikal Depression extends from the
Ridge to Baikal's northern shore (13,315 km2). These conditions
create a large deep-water lake, with a relatively small number of shallow
areas.
Three factors, the depth of the lake, its huge
volume of water, and its geographical position permit Baikal's somewhat
unusual process of self-purification. This process produces unbelievably
clear water. In fact, travel guides report that this has caused some
problems with tourists susceptible to vertigo; some visitors feel
uncomfortable when they peer over the side of a boat and are able to see 50
meters downward. The water clearness of Baikal probably concedes only to
Crater Lake in Oregon, USA.
Baikal's water, long famous for its spiritual and
medicinal qualities, is called "living water." Unlike all other deep lakes
of the world where the lower depths are dead, asphyxiated by hydrogen
sulfide and other gases, Lake Baikal's deep waters are blanketed in fresh
oxygen. It has only been in the past five years that scientists have
discovered thermal springs beating up from the bottom of Baikal. The release
of hot, oxygenated water from underwater vents mixed by two horizontal
currents and by rising and falling vertical currents may explain why the
water is alive with aquatic life.
Besides being exceptionally clear and rich with
aquatic life, Baikal's water is cold. Overall, the average temperature of
the water is +4 C, but varies like many micro climates depending on location
and season. The surface temperature in August in the middle of the lake is
about 8 to 10 C and along the coastal line, 14 to 16 C. Below the surface,
the water temperature plunges. In August, at a depth of 50 meters, the
temperature is about 5 to 6 C, even in summertime. In Kultuk Bay,
Chivyrkuysky Bay, Proval Bay, Peschanay Bay and the area called the Small
Sea, temperatures climb to between 6 and 18 C, and can reach a balmy 20-24
C.
In the winter, Baikal freezes gradually. By the
end of October, shallow bays are covered with ice and after the first few
months of winter, the entire surface of the lake freezes. The ice on
Baikal's surface is comparatively thin, only one meter thick in most places.
The melting process begins in the northwestern part of the lake at the end
of April before spreading to other parts of the lake.
Natural Wonders of the Lake Baikal Region.
The Mammals of Baikal
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Many mammals live in the Taiga including the brown
bear, elk, moose and deer. Brown bears, the world's largest flesh-eating
land mammal and the "Lords of the Taiga," are found throughout the region,
and can be spotted along the shoreline. Elk and deer can be seen more
readily, and during the winter, country people set up feeding troughs,
almost treating them like domestic pets.
Unfortunately, as in many parts of the world,
poaching in Russia and around Baikal is a growing problem. During difficult
economic times, this is especially with the local population, who hunt for
meat as well as for the illegal trade in pelts and skins. The poaching of
brown bear, deer, moose, elk and nerpa seal is common. Worldwide, the
numbers of many of these animals, including brown bear, grow smaller each
year. Those animals that do survive are faced with the problem of habitat
destruction, a constant threat to their ability to live and reproduce in the
wild.
Nerpa - Lake Baikal's Freshwater Seal
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Lake Baikal is home to the world's only fresh
water seal. The mystery of how the Nerpa came to Baikal still baffles
scientists. Apart from being a freshwater reservoir, Lake Baikal is hundreds
of miles from any other sea or ocean. Most believe that thousands of years
ago, the salt water of the Arctic Ocean stretched into the lower reaches of
the Yenisey up to the mouth of the Angara. Many scientists agree that the
seal belongs to the Tertiary fauna, and most likely migrated to the region
during the early stages of the period when the Baikal Depression formed. It
is thought that in search for food, the seals gradually migrated deeper into
the mainland. There have been years when scientists have counted nearly one
hundred thousand nerpa in and around the lake. Valued for their soft, warm
pelts and fat, the seals have been hunted for thousands of years.
Archeologists have discovered seal hunting weapons in the cave homes of
early seal hunters.
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Many kinds of fish make Baikal their home, and
about 50 are suitable for eating. A delicacy worldwide, the salmon found in
Lake Baikal is excellent. While locals use it in many of their favorite
dishes, they also enjoy sturgeon, burbot, groundling, oilfish, and bullhead.
Pike and perch are easy to catch and very popular.
In addition, grayling and omul are highly
recommended. Grayling contains two subspecies, white and black, and many
locals prefer the rare white which is said to be larger and tastier. There
are three types of Baikal omul inhabiting Baikal: Severobaikalsky, Posolsky
and Selenginsky. Omul is also found in other Siberian waters and even in the
northern parts of the Yenisey River.
Lake Baikal is home to some interesting, but
inedible fish. One in particular, the golomyanka, is one of only a few
viviparous fish in the world. The small, transparent golomyanka and its
cousin, the gobi, live in the lake's cold temperate zone. Since more than
half of the golomyanka consists of fat, the fish easily drifts through the
icy water. Twenty-seven species of gobi are unique to the lake and found
nowhere else on Earth.
In recent years, human environmental impacts have
affected Baikal's fish population, particularly the omul. Lake Baikal's
ecosystem was greatly altered by the construction of the Irkutsk Dam. Higher
water levels devastated the population of Baikal bullheads, a small fish
that serves as is the main source of nourishment for the omul and other
large fish. The omul became even smaller, gradually thinner and increasingly
infertile, a result of this environmental imbalance. To help mitigate the
problem, from 1969-1975 the fishing of omul was prohibited. As the water
level could not be altered, there was little more that could be done, and
while the population of omul increased, the fish remains noticeably smaller.
Crayfish - Caretakers of Lake Baikal
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There is an enormous number of small crayfish at
Lake Baikal, the distant relatives of the oceanic lobster, crab and shrimp.
These tiny crayfish, the Baikal epishura, could be considered the
"caretakers" of the lake because the devour the tiny waterweeds and bacteria
that cloud the water. While the crayfish is only one and one-half
millimeters long, in under one square meter of the lake's surface scientists
have counted up to three million of these creatures. Over the span of a
year, this armada of insatiable crayfish is capable of sweeping clean the
top 50 meters of the water three times. Another type of crayfish, the
gammarid shrimp (macrohectopus) is twenty times the size of epishura, and
destroys practically everything that threatens to pollute the water
including dead fish, drowned insects and animals.
Several scientists have attempted to locate a
definitive origin to the name, Baikal. Siberian scientist S. Gurulev
believes that the word Baikal originated from a combination of old Turkic,
Buryat, Yakut, Tibetan and Arabian words. The most likely analysis, however,
uses data on the origin of the Buryat tribes and shows that the word Baikal
is actually Yakut in origin. Scientists have traced the word's derivation
from the Yakut language, which was later assimilation by the Buryats. The
word Baigal means sea or ocean in Yakut, but in Buryat, there are no other
meanings of the word other than the geographical name of the lake. Upon the
Russian's arrival in the region, the word baigal was borrowed from the
Buryat language, but transformed to Baikal.
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