The Upper Reaches of the Urmi River

The bottom of the Urmi valley has altitude about a kilometer

In the upper reaches Urmi is swift and shallow

The only fish I was able to catch is yellowspotted grayling; it is considered a relative to the Upper-Amur grayling. In the Lower Amur this species is living together with the Lower-Amur grayling. Yellowspotted grayling is occupying areas close to the source of the rivers.

My lab at the river bank

The river has big gradient - over 1:100; the current during floods is very strong. You could see it by the size of the boulders at the banks.

A small tributary

After a strong rain a small river with 15:1000 gradient becomes a torrent

Unusual red lichens

This form of grayling is easy to distinguish from other grayling species by a yellow spot at the dorsal fin

Wet floodplain forest

Wild Sakhalin raspberry