Farid Abdulganiev: "Tatar branch of the Russian Geographical Society is a powerful team of professionals who not only conquer seas and set world records, but actively participate in the life of the Republic"

On September 8th, members of the underwater research and development team of the Russian Geographical Society n.a. Alexey Leonov start out for an expedition to study the North Seas of Russia. Exploration work will be carried out at the Kara Sea and will be the foundation for new stages of the project "13 seas of Russia". This was discussed today during the press conference at the Information Agency "Tatar-Inform". "Tatar branch of the Russian Geographical Society is a powerful team of professionals who not only conquer seas and set world records, but actively participate in the life of the Republic", acknowledged the Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, Farid Abdulganiev. He told that this year, within the framework of the Year of water protection areas, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan announced the start of the "Clean shore" campaign. Shores of more than 800 water bodies of Tatarstan were cleaned with the help of divers of the Russian Geographical Society. Moreover, in 2016, the Ministry of Ecology together with the Tatar branch of the Russian Geographical Society organized several rafting events across the rivers of the Republic. Their aim is not only to study and develop new possible touristic routes, but, first of all, to study and evaluate the quality of water bodies of Tatarstan. As a reminder, the project "Small rivers of Tatarstan" started last year. It is a multi-stage ecological expedition across the rivers of the Republic to clean their coastal areas and the places for recreation of citizens. This campaign also aims at attraction of attention to the problems of the ecological state of rivers and development of the culture of nature use. The joint campaign "Day for water body cleaning" has been held for more than 10 years now. The project "Preservation of natural, historical and cultural heritage of Russia" held under the aegis of the Russian Geographical Society has been successfully implemented, including, in particular, the unique project "Relics of Tatarstan" during which underwater expeditions were arranged in order to find the churches that for some reason had drowned. In order to promote the scientific and research activity and careful attitude to the environment, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan announced initiation of the procedure for selection of a candidate to participate in the expedition aimed at studying of the North Seas of Russia. The criteria for the candidate to meet were established. So, Dmitry Sidorov will set out on the expedition to study the North Seas of Russia along with professional underwater researchers of the Russian Geographical Society.  He is a 3-year student of the Kazan State Architectural and Construction University specializing in the engineering protection of the environment, the Department of Chemistry and Ecology in Construction.

"One of the most hard-to-reach seas - the Kara Sea - was selected as the exploration object", informed Dmitry Shiller, Chairperson of the Tatar branch of the Russian Geographical Society. - "The possibility of its exploration is limited to the maritime traffic". Three people will participate in the expedition. Exploration work will last for 40 days. The northern part of Vaygach island is the assumed location. The participants of the expedition will set up an autonomous camp in order to dive there. Earlier, the members of the team studied the Barentsevo and the Beloe Seas within the framework of the project "13 seas of Russia". While testing Russian equipment, the underwater researchers executed research papers and set a series of records, namely the deepest submersion of a diver in the Arctic Circle and the deepest under-ice diving.

Press Service of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan