№ 5 (49), 2011 - KazEnergy

One of the centers of fishing in the Caspianis located in Bautino in those early times,when Bautin Alexey himself had not yet laiddown his life in a violent battle for the happinessof the working people and a peacefulsettlement of fishermen called the village ofNikolayev.Right there in Tyubkaragan bay, was themain base of the Caspian sea-dogs slaughterhousefor those courageous people whoused to come out with the sticks in wintersto the breeding grounds, and beat the defenseless"Matiukha" with newborns "Belka".They beat to a frazzle, until hands beganfalling off. Seals fight was carried out inthe North Caspian Sea for a century, mainlyin the islands named the Seal islands. Skinswere used in many furriers’ crafts, and fat -in the food industry and as a lubricant.Nikolayev's merchant fishermen (for example,the famous Zachary Dubskoy) wereknown as widely as those Soviet leaders ofcooperatives and state farms, factories andbases who had come to replace them. Thesuccession, despite the social upheaval inthe early XX century, was still preserved.The builders of communism utmost usedthe nationalized means of production of thecapitalists, such as boats, ice-houses, smokefat-melting plants. And they themselves, atfirst differed little from their predecessors.Only fish in the Caspian Sea did not wishto be imbued with the grandeur of the economicplans of the workers' and peasants. Itgrew small and thin.Today, little is reminiscent of the gloriouspast of these fishing areas, except for thoserusty remains of the fishing fleet beautifullyblazing in the turquoise waves of theTyubkaragan bay that serve as the roost forphlegmatic cormorants. Along the shores ofthe Seal islands that is being served as reserve,there are lying... No, not seals! Hugevats used for melting the seal fat.The Caspian “Black Gold”However, some fish in the Caspian Sea isstill alive. Despite the fact that legal fishinghas disappeared from the shores ofMangyshlak, here in Bautino, is a divisionof guard-ships and boats, whose main taskis the fight against poachers. And on Kulaly,the largest island of the Seal archipelago,day and night the land guards of our borderskeep the watch on a single Kazakhstan islandpost.Constantly on duty, there is a dozen of soldierswith a pair of officers. Being replacedthe desertpeninsula andadjacent Ustyurt,which on closerinspection turnsout to be the sea.KAZENERGY107