vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #610 / Special reports / Reading article...

In a customary rescue operation occurring annually during spring ice melting, Sakhalin emergency services rescued 755 anglers stranded on a drifting ice sheet in the Bay of Mordvinova on Sunday.

Despite rescuers’ warnings not to go out on the thin spring ice to fish, hundreds of amateurs daily test their luck.

Sakhalin emergency services reported that in 41 similar cases in the past 10 years, they have saved more than 2,000 amateur fishermen.

In February of 2007 they rescued 412 anglers from floating ice in an operation that cost the regional administration 5 million rubles ($208,300).

The rescuers said that local lawmakers should introduce a law allowing amateur fishermen who knowingly disobey the warnings about thin ice danger to be fined.

“People should bear responsibility for their behavior. The work of helicopters, ships and rescuers is expensive and the fishermen should be cautious for their own lives,” the head of Sakhalin emergency services Nikolai Smirnov said, Ria Novosti news agency cited him as saying.

Currently Sakhalin rescuers keep watch in the Bay of Mordvinova, warning anglers not to wander onto the ice.

Primorye emergency services also warn the locals about the dangers of thin ice, reporting that in the past two weeks more than 100 fishermen found themselves on separated ice masses, with 10 vehicles becoming submerged.