OREANDA-NEWS. On May 20, 2014, the First National Conference on Development of Aquaculture in Russia was held in Murmansk. Over 130 representatives of the federal and local profile authorities, fisheries associations and unions, R&D institutions, Russian and international plants specialized in fish rearing for sale attended this conference.

On May 21, 2014, the participants of the conference visited the unique rainbow trout breeding facility established at the Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP of TGC-1 in 1992.

The facility is located 50 metres under the ground - the incubation facility with 28 reservoirs for juveniles breeding and the breeder's stock occupy the areas of the underground path with total length of 250 m. Upon achieving the required weight, the juveniles are sold to fisheries, primarily within the Murmansk Oblast and the Republic of Karelia.

- Such in-rock location makes it possible to locate the facility next to the rack room, thus reducing the noise interference. The technology of mixing hot water from the HPP and cold water from water storage facilities helps to establish ideal conditions required for the juveniles breeding, - said Igor Patsan, Director of the Tuloma HPPs Cascade of TGC-1, - The facility is owned by TGC-1 but now is transferred in lease. Production is supported by joint efforts of power engineers and fishery personnel. Despite all difficulties of aquaculture development, TGC-1 preserves and improves this unique facility for over two decades.

Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP belongs to the Tuloma HPPs Cascade of the Kolskiy Branch of JSC TGC-1. Its installed capacity is 268 MW, the long-time annual average electricity output is 860.307million kWh. HPP's rack room is located under the ground at a 50 metres depth.

A 1960-metre long fish path erected in 1961-1966 with underground fish lifter was inefficient since the volume of fish coming in it was very little. It was decided to arrange the fish breeding facility in the underground fish path of the HPP. The construction work was made by Atri (Finland).

The unique HPP fish path in Russia operates at the bottom power plant of the Cascade, i.e. at the Nizhne-Tulomskaya HPP. The fish path was erected in 1936 and became the first construction of this type in the country. Every year, the fish path opens in the start of June and operates until mid autumn. The fish goes through the artificial rapids with total length of 500 m, coming around the dam and raising for breeding from the Kola Bay to the headwaters of the Tuloma River.