Kamchatka, Russia

Kamchatka is a large peninsula located in the Far East. Administrative entity - Kamchatka Territory. Formed in 2007 through the merger of the Kamchatka region and the Koryak Autonomous Okrug. The administrative center is the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (the local slang name is Peter).

 

Destinations

Valley of Geysers
Anavgai
Blue Lakes Nature Park (Golubye Ozyora)
Esso
Kronotsky Nature Reserve
Komandorsky Nature Reserve
Nalychevo Nature Park

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Southern Kamchatka Nature Park (Yuzhno-Kamchatsky Zakaznik)
Bystrinsky Nature Park
Kluchevskoy Nature Park
Koryaksky Zapovednik
Palana
Paratunka
Yelizovo

 

What to do

Helicopter and walking tours (Valley of Geysers, Uzon Volcano caldera, Kuril Lake)
Climbing volcanoes (Avachinsky, Mutnovsky, Gorely)
Jeep tours, ATV excursions (to the Vachkazhets mountain range, to the caves of the Gorely volcano, to the Mutnovsky volcano, to the Mini Valley of Geysers (Dacha springs, to the Avachinsky volcano, to Lake Vorobinoy)
Thermal springs (Paratunka, Malkinskiye)
A trip to the Pacific Ocean
Horse rides
Boat trips with fishing
Hiking to the Blue Lakes
Diving

 

How to get there

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the only large city in Russia (and the second in the world) that cannot simply be reached by car.

Regular passenger service is carried out only through the airport of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (located in Yelizovo). You can also get there by sea (however, there is no regular passenger service), or by all-terrain vehicle, and in winter by snowmobile, reindeer or dog sled from the mainland.

 

Transport

Outside of civilization, the roads are dirt, and there is nothing to do on puzoterki. As a rule, all-terrain vehicles are used, and more distant places are reached by helicopter.

 

Eat

The cost of a basic package of basic food products - in particular vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy products - in Kamchatka will surprise you: an ordinary loaf of white bread is more than three times more expensive than a similar one in Volgograd (for example) - 75 rubles. Even in Kolyma - in sunny Magadan, food is much cheaper.

Prices in Petropavlovsk for the first half of 2018:
1 liter package of milk from 80 to 100 rubles.
a dozen chicken eggs - 120-200 rubles
fresh tomatoes - 400-800 rubles kg
fresh cucumbers - 500-800 rubles kg
Ryazhenka “Prostokvashino” 1 liter - 300 rubles (this is the one with the cat Matroskin...)
fresh onion - 350 rubles kg
old potatoes from 30 to 70 rubles per kilo, for young potatoes they ask for up to 400 saffron milk caps
liter pack of pomegranate juice “Ya” - 370 rub.
fresh strawberries from Turkey - 1000 rubles kg
fresh cherries from the Krasnodar region - 5000 rubles kg

Vegetables, as elsewhere in the Far East, are often produced in China. And even if they write Khabarovsk or Ussuriysk, in fact it was grown by the Chinese using their technologies, with herbicides and pesticides.

The cost of meat products is comparable to “mainland” prices, although it is also expensive. The price tags for local fish and seafood are not at all affordable: canned food costs more or less tolerably, but salmon caviar (pink salmon, chum salmon, etc.) costs more than 2,000 rubles. per kilo. The only consolation is that the seafood here is real, of good quality and has a large selection.

 

Precautionary measures

Summer in Kamchatka is not hot, rainy and foggy. A cyclone may approach and it will rain continuously for a couple of weeks. From here we think about what clothes to take with us.

Independent visits to volcanoes, geysers, and thermal springs may be unsafe. At a minimum, you need to find out from the locals what and how.

When traveling in Kamchatka, great attention must be paid to precautions related to a possible encounter with a bear. The population of bears in Kamchatka is one of the largest in the world, so human encounters with this animal are not uncommon. In case of independent excursions in Kamchatka, it is recommended to register with the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

There are many military installations and protected areas in Kamchatka. You shouldn’t go “over the fence” and look for adventures on your butt. They will tie you up, and then they will spend a long time trying to find out why and for what purpose you are here. In addition, some objects are indeed potentially dangerous to health and life.

There are no snakes on the peninsula. None at all.

And finally. Everything is expensive in Kamchatka. Very expensive. You need a lot of money.

 

Etymology

The name “Kamchatka”, attributed to the river, appears for the first time in Peter Godunov’s drawing of Siberia in 1667. There are more than 20 versions of the origin of the toponymic name “Kamchatka”.

Before the arrival of the Russians, Kamchatka was inhabited by several nationalities: Itelmens, Koryaks, Chukchi, Ainu.

In the Ainu language, the Kamchatka Peninsula, together with the Kuril Islands, was called Chupka (also Tyupka, Tsyupka), literally: “place of sunrise.”

According to one version, the name of the Kamchatka Peninsula itself is a compound word of Ainu origin from the following parts: kam “to extend” + chak “to explode” + ka “place”; the original toponym was Kamchakka, meaning “vast [and] exploding terrain.”

According to another version, the peninsula received its name from the Koryak name for the valley of the river. Kamchatka - Conchat.

According to B.P. Polevoy, the name of the Kamchatka Peninsula came from the Kamchatka River, and the river was named in honor of Ivan Kamchaty. In 1659, Fyodor Chukichev and Ivan Ivanov, nicknamed “Kamchaty”, were sent to the Penzhina River to collect yasak (the nickname was given due to the fact that he wore a silk shirt; in those days, silk was called “damask fabric” or “damask”). Ivan Kamchaty is a Kolyma Cossack, converted in 1649 at his own request, a former industrialist. In honor of Ivan Kamchatsky, one of the tributaries of the Indigirka River was already called “Kamchatka” in the 1650s. On their campaign, they did not limit themselves to the Paren and Penzhina rivers, they visited the Lesnaya River, where they met the Kolyma Cossack Leonty Fedotov’s son and the industrialist Sava Anisimov Sharoglaz (Seroglaz). It is known that having risen to the upper reaches of the Lesnaya River, they crossed to the eastern coast of Kamchatka, along the bed of the Karagi River they came to the shore of the Bering Sea, where for some time they were engaged in fishing for “fish tooth” (walrus ivory). In 1662, the Upper Kolyma Yukaghirs found all the participants in the campaign killed near Chukichev’s winter quarters on the Omolon River - “Prodigal”. It is believed that the campaign of Ivan Kamchaty gave rise to an unusual legend among the Itelmens “about the glorious, respected warrior Konsh(ch)at”, which was later heard by Georg Steller and Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov. Leonty Fedotov's son and Sava Seroglaz moved to the lower reaches of the Kamchatka River to one of its tributaries, which later began to be called “Fedotovka,” and conveyed to the Itelmens the story about Ivan Kamchat. Since the Itelmens on the Kamchatka River could not know about Ivan Kamchat, his path passed to the north. The Itelmens passed on to other Russian explorers of Kamchatka the legend of Ivan Kamchat, that is, of Konsh(ch)at.

The ethnonym “Kamchadal” arose no earlier than the 1690s. Only in the 1690s did the Russians learn that the Itelmens were not Koryaks at all, but a special people. In those days, it was customary to call local residents by the names of rivers. So from the Opuki River appeared the “Oputsky people”, from the Olyutory River - “Olyutorsky”, along the Pokhacha River - “Pogyche” - “Pogytsky”, and from the Kamchatka River - “Kamchatsky”, who in the time of Atlasov began to be called “Kamchadalians” or briefly “Kamchadals”, and from here, some time later, the southern peninsula was sometimes called “Kamchadalia” or “Kamchadal land”. Therefore, the Itelmen do not consider the ethnonym “Kamchadal” to be an Itelmen word.

There are etymological versions. Russian pioneers on the Kamchatka Peninsula encountered fur seals (kam seals) and hunted them. This is where the toponym “Kamchatka” — “land of the Kamchatkas” — came from. Previously, the word “Kamchat” meaning “big beaver” penetrated into Russian dialects through interaction with Tatar traders and spread throughout Siberia. Turkic kamka, Uyghur kimhap, kimhob in the Tajik language mean “patterned fabric” (damask) - this word comes from the Chinese kin hua (“golden flower”). To trim their hats, the Tatars used not fabric, but the skin of a beaver (or other animal) - in Tatar kama, kondyz (this is where the words “Kamchat”, “Kymshat” come from), where, according to one version, the name of the peninsula originates.

There is a version that Kamchatka is a Russified version of the Yakut hamchakky, ham-chatky, derived from khamsa (“kamcha”) - a smoking pipe, or from the verb ham-sat (“kamchat”) - “to move, sway”

 

History

Since the Stone Age, Kamchatka has been inhabited by ancient tribes. The first known peoples to appear in this territory were the Koryaks, Ainu and Itelmens. In the middle of the 19th century, the Evens began settling the peninsula.

Excavations of several ancient sites discovered on the territory of the Anadyr region indicate that the first people appeared in these places back in the early Neolithic era.

The sparse population was mainly engaged in hunting and fishing.

In the 17th century, the Russians began to explore Siberia and the Far East. One of the oldest cities in the Far East is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The Cossacks of Atlasov were among the first to arrive here from Russia in 1697. Cossacks in Avacha Bay, near the Itelmen village of Aushin, on the shores of the Avacha Bay of the Pacific Ocean, laid out warehouses for storing yasak and founded a fort.

A permanent Russian population appeared by the 1730s and, due to its small numbers, largely mixed with the aborigines of the region, and some of the Itelmen adopted the Russian language and culture, becoming part of the Kamchadals. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 3,600 people of the local Russian-Itelmen population in Kamchatka, who represented one ethnographic group with common features of culture and life and the Russian language of communication.

After 43 years, according to previously compiled maps of the Kamchatka land, the Second Kamchatka Expedition of 1733-1743 arrived here on two packet boats on October 17, 1740, under the leadership of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov.

The Peter and Paul fortress received its name from the names of the packet boats “St. Apostle Peter” and “St. Apostle Paul”.

The founder of the city is navigator of midshipman rank Elagin Ivan Fomich. On September 29, 1739, by order of the leader of the 2nd Kamchatka expedition, Vitus Bering, Ivan Elagin set off from Okhotsk to Kamchatka on the boat “Holy Archangel Gabriel”.

He was entrusted with describing the sea coast from the mouth of the Bolshoy River to Avacha Bay, continuing research on Avacha Bay, drawing up its map, building warehouses and living quarters to stop the expedition, and also taking measurements to determine the possibility of entry of large sea vessels, since “there should be the building was built for a servant’s dwelling, as well as for storing provisions for shops, and from the Big River to the said bay the seashore has not yet been described.”

Avacha Bay was discovered by Vitus Bering in 1729 during the return of the First Kamchatka Expedition to Okhotsk.

On October 6 (October 17 according to the present day), 1740, the packet boats “St. Apostle Paul,” led by Alexei Chirikov, and “St. Apostle Peter,” with commander Vitus Bering, arrived in Avacha Bay.

This day is considered to be the birthday of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

1779 - Peter and Paul Harbor was visited by two English warships “Discovery” and “Resolution” of J. Cook’s Third Around the World Expedition. C. Clark, who took over leadership of the expedition after the death of J. Cook, was buried in the harbor in August.

1787 - Petropavlovsk was visited by the ships "Bussol" and "Astrolabe" of La Perouse's round-the-world expedition.

1812 - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky received the status of a city and the name Petropavlovsk Harbor. A “New Regulation on Kamchatka” was also issued, according to which the management of Kamchatka was entrusted to a special chief. The place of residence of the chief was “designated” as Peter and Paul Harbor, which became the capital of Kamchatka.

December 2, 1849 - The Kamchatka region was formed, headed by Governor V.S. Zavoiko, with the center - the Petropavlovsk port.

In 1922, the Kamchatka province was formed on the territory of the Kamchatka region.

The Kamchatka region was formed on October 20, 1932 as part of the Khabarovsk Territory.

On July 22, 1934, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to include the Chukotka and Koryak national districts into the Kamchatka region.

In August 1938, a diesel submarine base was created in the Tarya Bay of the Avacha Bay. It was from this time that the future Vilyuchinsk became a city of submariners.

Since January 23, 1956, the region has been an independent region. The Koryak Autonomous Okrug was also located on the territory of the Kamchatka region.

The city of Vilyuchinsk was formed on October 16, 1968 by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR by merging the working villages of Rybachy (nuclear submarine base), Primorsky (coastal support units of the Pacific Fleet) and Seldevaya (ship repair plant of the Navy). It got its name from the neighboring volcano - Vilyuchinsky. The villages themselves received the status of microdistricts.

In 1959, by the personal decision of N. S. Khrushchev, the 4th Pacific Oceanographic Expedition TOGE-4 was formed in the Soviet Union, which gave a powerful impetus to the development of the region.

Since the end of 1959, the ship repair industry began to develop in the region, and a few years later nuclear submarines of the Pacific Fleet settled in Krasheninnikov Bay.

In 1959-60, a military unit of naval anti-submarine pilots was stationed in Rybachye, and military units of anti-submarine pilots were created.

In May 1970, Admiral of the USSR Fleet S.G. Gorshkov founded the Rybachy House of Fleet Officers (DOF) in the microdistrict.

In 1973, a monument to submariners who died while performing military duty was unveiled.

On July 28, 1996, a memorial was opened in Vilyuchinsk in honor of the submariners who died while performing combat missions. The names of the L-16 submariners are inscribed on a copper plate attached to the submarine's conning tower; the names of the K-129 and K-429 crew members are inscribed on granite slabs.

In 1998, the flotilla of nuclear submarines of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Federation was reorganized into a squadron of nuclear submarine missile cruisers. In NATO reference books, this Russian submarine base is called the Hornet's Nest.

On October 23, 2005, a referendum was held on the unification of the Kamchatka region and the Koryak Autonomous Okrug. The population supported the unification of the regions.

On July 7, 2006, the Federation Council approved the law “On the formation of a new constituent entity of the Russian Federation as a result of the unification of the Kamchatka region and the Koryak Autonomous Okrug.”

As a result, a new subject of the Russian Federation was formed, which since July 1, 2007 has been called the Kamchatka Territory; an administrative-territorial unit with a special status has been created within the region - the Koryak Okrug.

On August 28, 2015, the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On the creation of the territory of rapid socio-economic development “Kamchatka”” was adopted to create conditions for strengthening Russia’s economic position in the competitive markets of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and stimulating the socio-economic development of the Kamchatka Territory through the creation of additional jobs, new industrial and tourist facilities, production of export-oriented and import-substituting products, attracting investment.

 

Physiographic characteristics

Geography

The Kamchatka Territory occupies the territory of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the adjacent part of the mainland, Karaginsky Island and the Commander Islands. It is washed from the east by the Bering Sea (coast length is more than 2000 km), from the west by the Sea of Okhotsk (coast length is approximately 2000 km).

Up to 14,100 rivers and streams flow through the territory of the Kamchatka Territory. The main rivers: Kamchatka (length 758 km), Penzhina (713 km), Kuyul (Talovka) (458 km), Vyvenka (395 km), Pakhacha (293 km), Apuka (296 km), Ukelayat (288 km). Lakes: Talovskoye (44 km²), Palanskoye (28 km²).

Mountain ranges: Sredinny (length about 900 km), Eastern, Vetveysky, Penzhinsky, Pakhachinsky, Olyutorsky, etc. Heights: Khuvkhoytun (2613 m), Ledyanaya (2562 m), Ostraya (2552 m), Shishel (2531 m), Tylele Hill (2234 m).

Kamchatka belongs to a zone of active volcanic activity; there are about 300 large and medium-sized volcanoes, 29 of them are active. The largest volcano in Eurasia is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (height 4750 m). The activity of volcanoes is associated with the formation of many minerals, as well as the manifestation of hydrogeothermal activity: the formation of fumaroles, geysers, hot springs, etc.

The Kamchatka region is located in a 12-hour zone called Kamchatka time. The UTC offset is +12:00. The difference with Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation, is 9 hours.

Its territory is roughly comparable to Papua New Guinea and Cameroon.

 

Climate and nature

The climate in the northern part of the region is subarctic, on the coasts it is temperate maritime with a monsoon character, and in the interior regions it is continental. Winter is long and snowy; average temperatures in January-February range from −7… −8 °C in the south and southeast, −10… −12 °C in the west to −19… −24 °C in the center and north. Summer is short, usually cool and rainy; average temperatures in July and August range from +10...+12 °C in the west, +12...+14 °C in the southeast and up to +16 °C in the central part. Precipitation varies greatly: from 300 mm per year in the extreme northwest of the region to 2500 mm per year in the southeast.

Most of the peninsula is covered with stone birch forests; alder and cedar dwarf trees are common in the upper parts of the mountain slopes. In the central part, especially in the Kamchatka River valley, forests of Kuril larch and Ayan spruce are common. In the floodplains of the rivers, forests grow with the participation of fragrant poplar, hairy alder, choicenia, and Sakhalin willow. In the second tier and undergrowth, green-fleshed hawthorn, Asian bird cherry, Kamchatka rowan, shrubs - Kamchatka elderberry, blunt-eared rosehip, elderberry rowan, Kamchatka honeysuckle, meadowsweet, shrubby willows and many other species are common. Kamchatka, especially coastal areas, is characterized by tall grasses - species such as Kamchatka shelamaynik, bear's angelica, and sweet hogweed reach a height of 3-4 meters.

The fauna is represented by many species, among the largest land mammals are the brown bear, bighorn sheep, reindeer, elk, and wolverine. Also common are fox, sable, squirrel, mink, ermine, weasel, muskrat, Arctic ground squirrel, black-capped marmot, pika, voles and shrews. The wolf is quite rare and is more typical for the northern part of the peninsula. Among the relatively rare species in Kamchatka are also chiropterans, or bats - Brandt's bat, northern bat, eastern brown long-eared bat (presumably found in the lower reaches of the Kamchatka River). The coasts and coastal waters are inhabited by sea otters, sea lions, fur seals, spotted seals, anturas, cetaceans - killer whales, gray whales, porpoises and others.

About 240 species of birds are found in Kamchatka, among which marine colonial and wetland species are especially noticeable. Passeriformes are also numerous, and birds of prey are also found (steller's sea eagle, white-tailed eagle, golden eagle, gyrfalcon, peregrine falcon, goshawk, osprey, etc.)

There are no land reptiles on the peninsula; there are only two species of amphibians - the Siberian salamander and the lake frog.

 

Reserves and natural monuments

More than 14.5% of the territory of the Kamchatka Territory is classified as specially protected. There is the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, the Yuzhno-Kamchatsky Nature Reserve of federal significance, and two sanatorium-resort areas - Paratunka Resort, Malkinsky Mineral Waters); four natural parks of regional significance (“Nalychevo”, “Bystrinsky”, “South-Kamchatsky”, “Klyuchevskoy”); 22 reserves of regional significance; 116 natural monuments; four specially protected natural areas (the Blue Lakes landscape nature park, the South-Western tundra and Sobolevsky reserves).

Six zones called “Volcanoes of Kamchatka” are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List: Kronotsky Biosphere Reserve, Uzon Volcano Caldera, Bystrinsky Natural Park, Nalychevo Natural Park, South Kamchatka Natural Park, Klyuchevskoy Natural Park.

 

Reserves

Koryaksky Nature Reserve, including Cape Govena, Lavrova Bay and Parapolsky Dol (327 thousand hectares) The Koryaksky Nature Reserve has been under the management of the Kronotsky State Nature Reserve since April 2015.
Kronotsky Nature Reserve;
South Kamchatka Nature Reserve (Located under the management of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Kronotsky State Reserve";
Commander Nature Reserve on the Commander Islands.

 

Nature reserves

Karaginsky Island (193 thousand hectares), Moroshechnaya River (150 thousand hectares), Belaya River (90 thousand hectares), Lake Palanskoye (88 thousand hectares), Kaazarok Lagoon (17 thousand hectares), Utkholok (50 thousand hectares). ha) etc.

 

Natural monuments

Valley of Geysers, Palana geothermal springs, Anastasia Bay, o. Manchu, larch forest, amethysts of the Shamanka River, etc.

 

Flora

The flora of Kamchatka includes about 1,200 species of vascular (higher) plants. There is a comparative impoverishment of the Kamchatka flora in comparison with similar climatic zones of the Far East. The dendroflora of the region, including the islands (Komandorsky and Karaginsky), includes more than 100 species of trees, shrubs, subshrubs, shrubs, lianas and other plants with woody stems, which accounts for approximately 7% of the flora of vascular plants in the region.

Of the trees, the most common species is the Erman birch, or stone birch (Betula ermanii), which forms sparse forests throughout the region and reaches north to the south of the Koryak Highlands. In optimal conditions, stone birch is a fairly large tree, up to 15-20 m tall and 90 cm in diameter. However, on the ocean coast, at the upper border of the forest and in the north of the peninsula, due to unfavorable climatic factors, its trunk is often strongly curved and rarely reaches even 10 m in height.

Less common are large coniferous trees: Okhotsk larch (Larix ochotensis) and Ayan spruce (Picea ajanensis), forming forests mainly in the Kamchatka River valley. The endemic of the peninsula, the graceful fir (Abies gracilis), is found on an area of about 22 hectares only in the estuary of the Semyachik River on the eastern coast of Kamchatka.

Sweet poplar, aspen, hairy alder, choicenia, and Sakhalin willow grow mainly in river floodplains. In the undergrowth in the central and southern regions of Kamchatka there are Asian bird cherry, green-fleshed hawthorn, Kamchatka elderberry, Kamchatka rowan, goat willow and others.

Along the mountain slopes and plateaus, cedar or dwarf cedar (Pinus pumila) and Kamchatka alder (Alnus kamtschatica) are widespread, forming unique dwarf forests over vast areas.

Kamchatka is very characterized by tall grasses - species such as sweet hogweed (Heracleum dulce), Kamchatka meadowsweet (Filipendula camtschatica), bear angelica (Angelica ursina), Kamchatka cacalia (Cacalia kamtschatica), common ostrich (Matteuccia struthiopteris), etc. reach a height of 3-4 meters. Stepan Krasheninnikov wrote: “The herbs throughout Kamchatka without exception are so tall and juicy that it is difficult to find similar ones in the entire Russian Empire. Along rivers, lakes and in copses they are much taller than a person, and they grow so quickly that you can put hay in one place at least three times a summer.”

Kamchatka is rich in wild berries - edible honeysuckle grows on the peninsula, two types of blueberries, crowberries (shiksha), lingonberries, two types of cranberries, cloudberries, princely raspberries (Arctic raspberries), Sakhalin raspberries, currants - red-fruited species: sad and pale-flowered, and also rare here black-fruited currant-grouse, mountain ash - large-fruited elder-leaf and small-fruited Kamchatka, redberry (klopovka), stone drupe, etc.

 

Animal world

Marine fauna

The waters of Kamchatka are the only region of the World Ocean where all six species of Pacific salmon live.

The waters washing Kamchatka are rich in a variety of shellfish: mussel, littorina, whelk, chiton; crustaceans: shrimp, king crab; marine mammals: seal, sea lion, sea otter, walrus, fur seal, killer whale, as well as a large number of fish species: in the Bering Sea - 394 species, in the Sea of Okhotsk - 270 species. One of the most common and abundant deep-sea game fish in the area is the giant grenadier.

In the Pacific Ocean, the species composition is even more diverse and includes fish families: cod, flounder, herring, smelt, greenling or sea lenka, sea bass, slingshot or goby, salmon, Pacific noble salmon, char, as well as marine invertebrates.

 

Freshwater fauna

The species composition of the rivers and lakes of Kamchatka is relatively poor; there are very few typical freshwater species - these are grayling, mykiss (a freshwater form of Kamchatka salmon), river and lake forms of Dolly Varden, smelt, sockeye salmon and coho salmon. Introduced silver crucian carp, Amur carp, and Siberian char are also found in the Kamchatka River basin. And only in the very north, mainly in the basin of the rivers Penzhina, Talovka, Rekinniki and some others, are species such as Penzhina omul, whitefish, pyzhyan and other whitefishes, as well as pike, sculpin, burbot and some others found.

 

Birds

In Kamchatka there are slaty gulls, puffin gulls, Beringian cormorants, Pacific guillemots, guillemots, and fulmars are representatives of the bazaars. The following species are also represented everywhere: crows, magpies, nutcrackers, wagtails, partridges, waders. Less accessible for observation are small birds such as the Little Flycatcher, Chinese Greenfinch, Spotted Pipit, Okhotsk Cricket, Gray Bunting, Whistling Nightingale, Brambling, Eastern Tit, Dubrovnik Bunting, Siberian Zhupan, Common Bee-eater, Bluetail, Mountain Great Snipe, Pink Gull . Many representatives of the predatory fauna, including Steller's sea eagle, white-tailed eagle, golden eagle, peregrine falcon, osprey, hawk owl, etc.

 

Land fauna

The fauna of land mammals includes: Kamchatka sable, ermine, otter, mountain hare, muskrat, fox, elk, reindeer, bighorn sheep, lynx, polar wolf, wolverine, weasel, Beringian ground squirrel, Kamchatka marmot, etc. The fauna has some features of the island character: in Kamchatka there are not many taiga animals typical for Eastern Siberia and the Far East - for example, musk deer, grouse - only in the very north of the region (in the Penzhinsky region) is the flying squirrel found, relatively recently the Yakut chipmunk penetrated through the Parapolsky valley and further to the south, just like the lynx did in the 1930s. Of the large predatory animals of the forest zone, the Kamchatka brown bear was and remains the most noticeable and best known species.

Of the arthropods, there are many spiders.

Among the amphibians found in Kamchatka are the Siberian salamander, lake frog and grass frog. The Siberian salamander is an indigenous species, distributed throughout the entire peninsula up to the northernmost regions. The lake frog, introduced to Kamchatka at the end of the 20th century, lives in the Khalaktyrskoye, Medvezhye and Kultuchnoye lakes in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in the Paratunka Valley, in the vicinity of the village of Malki, in the area of the Mutnovskaya GeoPP, as well as in some thermal reservoirs in the Milkovsky and Bystrinsky districts. The grass frog is so far known only from one point in the southwest of the peninsula (Golyginskie Klyuchi), where it was deliberately introduced in 2005 from the Moscow region. Within 10 years, the first stable population of this species formed there.

There are no land reptiles; twice, a leatherback sea turtle migrating from tropical seas was caught off the coast of the peninsula.

 

Natural resources

Aquatic biological resources - fish, seafood.
Mineral waters of various types and fresh waters.
The region has rich timber reserves.

 

Ores and placers of non-ferrous metals

Shanuchskoye copper-nickel field - up to 2.5 million tons of ore (about 5% nickel, Bystrinsky district) - the Shanuchskoye mining and processing enterprise is preparing for operation.
Olyutorsky deposit of mercury ores and valley placers of platinum in the Olyutorsky district.
Khalaktyrskoe deposit of titanium-magnetite sands (concentrate reserves are about 6 million tons, dioxide reserves are up to 0.8 million tons).

Despite the region’s insignificant total reserves of 450–800 tons of gold, the concentration of ores is high, ranging from 10 to 25 grams of metal per ton of ore:
"Amethyst" with reserves of 102 tons;
"Rodnikovoe" with reserves of 40 tons;
Aginskoye gold deposit with reserves of 30 tons of gold, the Aginskoye mining and processing plant operates;
"Ozernovskoe" and several gold fields under investigation.

 

Fossil fuels

Deposits of the Okhotsk and Pacific oil and gas provinces:
western coast (Kshukskoye, Severo-Kolpakovskoye, Sredne-Kunzhikskoye and Nizhne-Kvakchikskoye fields (7.2 billion m³)), total established gas reserves - 19.31 billion m³ - of local importance, in 2010 a gas pipeline was laid to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky;
Exploration of offshore fields is underway; predicted resources are estimated at 1.8 billion tons of oil and 2.3 trillion m³ of gas.
The Krutogorovskoye deposit of brown coal of local importance (profitable reserves - about 100 million tons) in the Ust-Bolsheretsky region - pre-project preparation for development, and several deposits of hard coal in the Koryak district - Khairyuzovskoye (C2 - 1.377 million tons) and Lesnovskoye (P1 - 2, 04 million tons, P2 - 5.9 million tons at a depth of 100 m).

 

Renewable energy resources

The region has significant hydropower potential:
The Penzhinskaya Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk has enormous tidal potential, assessed in Soviet times as part of the Penzhinskaya TPP project with a capacity of 87 GW;
The potential of the rivers of the peninsula is significant, realized only by a few objects, in particular the Tolmachevsky hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of 45.2 MW. The total potential of the rivers is estimated at up to 20 GW of operating power.
The potential of Kamchatka’s steam hydrotherms is also great, including low-temperature ones, capable of stably providing heat energy, and the total estimated electrical potential reaches 1 GW. Among the main deposits:
Mutnovskoye (up to 413.6 million kWh of electricity per year is generated at the Mutnovskaya and Verkhne-Mutnovskaya GeoPPs);
Pauzhetskoye (up to 60 million kWh of electricity per year is generated at the Pauzhetskaya GeoPP).
The wind potential of the coast is high, especially in the Ust-Kamchatsky, Sobolevsky regions and at Cape Lopatka. There are two wind power plants: in the village of Nikolskoye on the Commander Islands and in the village of Oktyabrsky.
In 2010, Kamchatka generated 40% more electricity than needed, but in some places there was a surplus and in others there was a shortage.