Hidden (Bay, Corfu Bay)

The name of the bay is due to the fact that in 1885 the hydrographic survey of the Gulf of Korf by the expedition of FK Huck did not notice the bay hidden behind the sandy oblique and did not put it on the map ^[2] . The bay was discovered 16 years later during a boat survey from the military transport " Yakut ". Officers of "Yakut" and assigned the bay the current name ^[3] . On the sea navigational chart (location), Hidden Bay appeared in 1909 ^[4] .

It is a shallow lagoon, with depths of up to two meters in the central part, separated from the bay of Baron Korf by the low and narrow sandy Korfsky spit . The spit stretches 18 km to the northeast, with a maximum width of 800 meters. The bay is open to the northeast, protruding into the mainland for 15 km. The area of ​​the water mirror was 18.2 km². Entrance width about 400 m.

The tidal currents in the aisle (mouth) are quite strong (8-10 km / h), up to 2.0 m in size, irregular semidiurnal ^[5] .

In November 1966, during a very severe storm, the Korfsky spit in its narrow place was broken by sea waves, and new mouths were formed for the hidden bay 290 meters wide. The southern part of the sand spit, which became an island, by the end of the 1970s. It was gradually blurred, along with the village of Korfskaya MRS located on it (motor repair station), which is part of the Korf fish factory. A narrow sandbank remained from the former spit; during low tide it dries up almost throughout its length, and in full water (high tide) breakers form above it. To the north of the shallow is the entrance (mouth) to the Hidden Harbor, limited to the north by the base of Konohval Spit.

The Avyavayam River flows into the bay , which in the delta forms two large channels , and many streams, the largest of which is Wide. The western part of the bay is low, swampy . The northern part of the coast is hilly , the Tilichik mountains begin here (height up to 681 m) ^{[6] [7]} .

Salmon come into the water area of ​​Hidden Bay to spawn in the Avyavayam River: pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon , coho salmon , chinook salmon , followed by char, sesame . Smelt lives in the reservoir almost all year round. Also, gobies, flounder, rasp , rarely cod, pollock come to spawn. Lamprey and sea urchins are rare.

Pinnipeds enter the Hidden Bay for rest and feeding on the first ice: seal, largh , akib . In the fall, on ice, they arrange large rookeries ^[4] .

In 1937, scientists recorded the spawning of Olyutor's herring in the bay, but according to the stories of old-timers, this phenomenon was first observed in their memory. At the same time, in the neighboring bays of Siberia and Skobelev herring spawns annually. Scientists noted that, by its terms, Hidden herring is even more attractive for spawning than Siberia and Skobeleva. According to their assumption, the stream of cold and fresh water from the Talalaevka River, which flows into the sea near the mouth of the bay, serves as an obstacle to the annual spawning in Hidden. This stream, according to scientists, closes the entrance to the bay for herring ^[1] .

The village of Tilichiki is located on the northern shore of the bay, and the village of Korf on the southern (on the spit). A ferry service was organized between the villages across the harbor ^[8] . In winter, the bay freezes, and automobile communication is established on the ice. The duration of navigation in the Tilichiki port office lasts from mid-May to mid-September.

In Hidden, Pacific salmon , smelt, saffron cod and other species of fish are caught ^[9] .

Hidden Bay is a place of environmental disaster. Since the mid 1950s animal husbandry was actively developing on the coast. Manure from pastures fell into the reservoir along with water flowing into the bay. This caused a rapid growth of algae, which led to a strong shallowing of the bay. But even greater danger is the huge landfill of solid waste and liquid waste, which has grown especially much after the destruction of the village of Korfa in 2006 as a result of the Olyutor earthquake . Products of rotting waste during heavy rains and spring floods from crowded settling tanks flow down streams into the bay. In addition, from the village of Tilichiki, bypassing the sewage treatment plant, the village sewer merges into the harbor. As a result, less and less fish enter the bay every year, while colonies of polyps have appeared. With continued shallowing of the water area, shipping will become impossible here ^[4] .

• Martynenko Valery. Kamchatka coast. Historical location . - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Far Eastern Book Publishing House, Kamchatka Branch, 1991. - 190 p.
• Myagkikh V. The Bitter Fate of the Hidden Bay // Olyutor Bulletin: regional newspaper. - Tilichiki, 2016 .-- February 1. Archived on April 16, 2018.
• Myagkikh V. History of 4 bases // Olyutor Bulletin: regional newspaper. - Tilichiki, 2015 .-- July 19. Archived on April 14, 2018.
• Batranin A.M., Nemiro E.A. Fishery and biology of herring (Clupea harengus pallasii CV) in Korfa Bay, based on 1936-1937 // Studies of water biological resources of Kamchatka and the northwestern Pacific. - 2010. - No. 16 .