First in a series of posts about Simms’ conversation efforts – this one with Dan Vermillion and Charlie Conn of Sweetwater Travel and the Taimen Conservation Fund.
The Wading Room discusses the conservation efforts that Simms sponsors. First in this series of posts is a conversation with Dan Vermillion and Charlie Conn of Sweetwater Travel and the Taimen Conservation Fund. Based in Livingston, Montana, Sweetwater operates fly fishing lodges all over the world, including British Columbia, the Bahamas, Montana, Brazil and Mongolia. Sweetwater Travel was started by Dan with his brothers Jeff and Pat. Charlie Conn has guided and managed the two camps in Mongolia for 15 years and spearheads the Taimen Conservation Fund’s efforts there. This conversation centers on their efforts to protect taimen in Mongolia through the creation and operation of the Taimen Conservation Fund.
Wading Room: Talk to me about the history of your efforts in Mongolia.
Dan Vermillion: We all grew up in Billings, Montana. The kid who lived across the street went to Yale Forestry School. He graduated in 1991-92. He saw ad in newspaper that the United Nations had given money for the development of national parks when Mongolia gained independence from Russia. He traveled there in 1993.
At that time, Mongolia and especially Ulaanbaatar was a pretty tough place. In a nutshell, his job was to design national parks that were dependent on migratory needs of wildlife. Where Yellowstone has strict boundaries, in Mongolia they were trying to design national parks for year-round use by wildlife. Puji (who we would later partner with) was the only one who had a Jeep in UB, so he was the tour guide.
When our friend came back to the States, my brother Jeff wanted to know how to get ahold of Puji after hearing tales about taimen. Jeff sent Puji a fax, which led to an invitation from Puji. When Jeff went to Mongolia, Puji took him to Eg River and on his third cast, he broke his fly rod on a taimen. They didn’t think they would find fish like that there. Jeff came back to US and sent letter to Frontiers and said he wanted to set up a lodge operation. Frontiers quickly pre-sold 6 weeks of bookings for Mongolia. Jeff took that money and set up the camp with Ron Meek, who still works with us today.
We knew than that we had discovered something unique and that we had to protect it. As soon as these fisheries get discovered, population pressures come to bear on fisheries. It is important to give the river and people the tools to withstand the increased fishing pressure. Our thoughts then were to figure out a way to fish the river in a sustainable model. Frankly it is really working. Fast forward and 90% of the angling pressure on our rivers is catch-and-release. In 1996 I thought we would have only been there 5-6 years. Now, they still produce the largest fish found anywhere.
WR: Tell us a little about taimen and their habitat in Mongolia?
Charlie Conn: The River itself is your typical northern hemisphere river. The river comes out of the mountains, with little feeder streams and springs meeting the river along its journey.
WR: Is that part of the allure? That it feels like home.
CC: The allure, for my part, is the opportunity. And the history of the place. But the fact that it is like Montana has aided in some pretty cool ways. It is definitely exotic, however. I knew nothing about Mongolia until I saw pictures from Jeff Vermillion. We usually associate it with the Gobi Desert and northern Mongolia is nothing like that.
WR: What is the historical distribution of taimen?
CC: They went from the Danube to the Pacific. Largest ranging salmonid in the world and the largest distribution of fish in the world.
DV: The two oldest fish in the world are taimen and lenok. These two fish are the foundation of the family tree of trout. As a result, they are incredibly sensitive to commercial pressure.
WR: What was the genesis of the Taimen Conservation Fund?
CC: We are in the second year of the Taimen Conservation Fund. The genesis of the organization was the need to get more money directly to protecting taimen. The Tributary Fund, which was established in 2004, was and still is doing an excellent job promoting conservation and religious ethics in Mongolia. However, the taimen got lost in the mix. There was already infrastructure to help the environment working with local cultural entities, but not as much to directly aid the fish.
DV: We set up a World Bank-sponsored project to try to figure out a conservation model that would work for the taimen. They gave us $1 million, but there had to be a 501c3. This established The Tributary Fund. However, after 5 or 6 years, we felt we needed to specifically raise funds for taimen and the Taimen Conservation Fund was created.
WR: Talk to me about what the Taimen Conservation Fund does in Mongolia?
CC: The Taimen Conservation Fund is an organization that intends to protect taimen and their habitat. We work in the Eg-Ur River system (the most pristine taimen fishery in the world) to fund river patrols (by paying both wages for patrollers and transportation) that enforce river regulations. It has been critical in sustaining populations of taimen in the Eg-Ur system.
WR: I understand there are some laws already on the books to protect taimen, like anglers can only fish with single barbless hooks. How did this come about?
DV: Mongolia is a parliamentary democracy. There have been concerted efforts with those in Parliament to work with the Ministry of Nature and protect natural resources. It is similar to the process in the US – you work with the influencers as to how to properly regulate fishing in Mongolia. The former prime minister is on board of the Taimen Conservation Fund. And we have other high level Mongolians on the board and they love to fly fish. They are very interested in making fly fishing and taimen conservation a permanent part of Mongolia. They grew up with the fish – you used to be able to catch taimen just outside the capital Ulaanbaatar.
WR: Give us the current state of taimen in the Eg-Ur river system where Sweetwater Travel has its camps.
CC: We are still dealing with fairly natural population of fish. I think we are seeing some changes in the populations a little bit. You start to see smaller fish and there’s a possibility you are losing some fish to poaching. To be honest with you, though, I probably catch as many fish as I used to. I have had heydays where everything is great, but our memories in the fishing world can be deceiving. We are still in a position where we are protecting pretty natural populations.
DV: I think it is doing pretty darn well. It is hard to know, though. Sometimes one camp is doing better than other times. I would say that the fishing might not be as good as 1995, but the long time average is staying intact. The fishery is vulnerable, but the habitat is solid. The water is in good shape. As long as the fish are allowed to do their thing, they will be in good shape.
WR: For your perspective, what is the long range prognosis of taimen in the Eg-Ur watershed? What are the drivers that could impact that for the positive and the negative?
CC: With the exception of mining, one of the issues is the road from Ulaanbaatar into the Eg-Ur River Valley. This has led to a big interest in fishing. In other areas, they deal with foreigners, but it used to take 24 hours by car to get to our first camp, and with the new road they can get there in 11 hours. I also worry that sport fisherman can be deadly with a huge rod and a big spoon. This doesn’t even talk about netting – we have seen people with nets on the river.
DV: When we were younger, we thought we could keep a river private and quiet. We now know change is coming. It might be a road, it might be a mine. Whatever it is, you want to give the river a chance. Short term, the threat might be the road. The only way to make that a non-issue is to change how people fish and handle fish. Just like rainbows and browns back in Montana, if they [the angler] fish properly and handle the fish well, you can make a positive influence. On the other hand, there are poor Mongolians and they are close to China and commercial fishing is still a threat. The catch-and-release nature of it is getting better and Mongolians care a lot more about this. The Taimen Conservation Fund is hiring rangers to patrol the rivers and having quality poaching assessment. That will help control commercial fishing. Any big market-type fishing commercial operations have not come to the Eg-Ur in part because of these efforts.
WR: Sweetwater Travel provides trips all around the world. Do you try and set up conservation programs like this to protect all the fisheries?
DV: For us, if we don’t have fish to catch, we don’t have much of a business. We just have a cabin on the river. My brother Jeff is working hard on BC on Northern Rivers Conservation Trust. They are also working on promoting economic alternatives to commercial fishing. In Mongolia, a little money goes a long way. In BC, you need a bigger pot of money. Pat, my other brother, is actively working with TU on the Pebble Mine project in Alaska.
Not all efforts help, however. The lodge we just bought in Bahamas did a tagging operation on bonefish. We have recently found out this could have a high mortality rate for the fish. But we will keep trying to do what we can. In Montana, we do a lot of conservation with TU, Montana Land Reliance, etc. to make sure our kids have a good place to go fishing.
WR: What should the responsibility of the traveling angler be? How can they best find out the true story of their impact?
DV: I sincerely believe that it’s important to travel with an outfitter (there are a few in Mongolia) who take care of the fish. Make sure they don’t fish in a way that will harm the fishery and that they are ethical on how they treat the resource. If they show photos on website that show poor fish handling techniques, beware. Being a travelling angler is like a lot of decisions we make when we shop at home. One of the things we always try to emphasize is that you are a guest of the community and you should be deferential to their natural ecosystem and belief system.
To learn more about the Taimen Conservation Fund, visit their website. If you would like to help their cause, you can donate right from their website. For each $100 donated in February, you receive one entry in their Mongolia trip drawing (airfare not included). If you are interested in a travelling to Mongolia, you can see more information on Sweetwater Travel’s website.
photos courtesy of Matt Harris Photography.