ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I show how a hidden fishing topology is created not “to supply and ensure” successful fishing but “to prevent failures” and to respond quickly to inevitable collapses on this stretch of the Ob river (in the Tomsk region). Investing in risks becomes a central leitmotif, which constitutes an interconnected structure of locations, points, bases, created by the poacher according to its logic. The peculiarity of non-compliant behavior is manifested in the following distinction: while in the sphere of permitted types of hunting and fishing, the risks are usually managed through open positioning of supply points and mutual assistance, in the field of poaching the same tasks are achieved through autonomy, isolation, and conspiracy. The hidden dimension of river and coastal space affects the rhythms of fishing and the temporal shifts that occur under the influence of failure, collapse, and misfortune.
