site.btaThousands of Fish Releases in the Danube in Major Sturgeon Conservation Campaign
NW 16:12:31 13-05-2019
LN1611NW.109
109 ENVIRONMENT - DANUBE - STURGEON
Thousands
of Fish Releases
in the Danube in Major Sturgeon Conservation Campaign
Bucharest/Sofia, April 19 (BTA) - Nature conservation and scientific organisations from ten countries along the Danube, including World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Bulgaria, have united to help save one of the most endangered fish in the world, the sturgeon, the Danube-Carpathian WWF programme told BTA. They released one-year old Russian sturgeon raised in fisheries in the vicinity of Isaccea, Romania.
This was part of the activities to restore migrating fish species in the Danube basin. Sturgeon, which have remained nearly unchanged in the last 250 million years, have seen their natural habitat decimated to very few in recent years. Much of the sturgeon populations at reproductive age in the European Union are found in the lower flow of the Danube between Bulgaria and Romania.
Once, Russian sturgeon used to be the most numerous of the sturgeon species in the Danube but its catch has dropped by 99 per cent in just four years.
Recovering the critically endangered populations of Russian sturgeon calls for modern conservation methods. Before they were released, the fish were tagged to enable identification in case of recapture for in-situ surveys, and to assist evaluation of survival rates. This will provide valuable insight for larger stocking plans in the future, WWF Bulgaria said.
A series of similar actions have been undertaken since 2007, with more than 500,000 babies of three sturgeon species released - Russian sturgeon, beluga and starry sturgeon (sterlet).
A simultaneous stocking event took place in Baja, Hungary - with the smallest sturgeon species, the sterlet. Unlike the other types of sturgeon, it does not migrate to and from the Black Sea during the spawning season and spends all its life in fresh water. With a maximum migration of 300 km along the river, today starlet is the most numerous sturgeon species in the Danube.
Sturgeon and other migratory fish species represent the historical, economic and natural heritage of the Danube. Furthermore, they are indicators of the ecological condition of the Danube which has a major function an ecological corridor. Fragmentation of rivers by transversal structures like hydropower dams or flood protection measures poses a threat to natural fish populations as they are no longer able reach their spawning grounds, feeding grounds and wintering habitats.
Transnational management and restoration actions to re-establish these corridors as migration routes, as well as stocking with indigenous species are essential until we have achieved a self-sustaining population again, WWF Bulgaria says.
Today all 27 sturgeon species are on the IUCN Red List, 16 of which are critically endangered.
WWF Bulgaria has a key role in the actions to preserve migratory fish. For years now its experts have been doing field work and in September they underwent specialized training to identify and map the habitats of sturgeon in Tulcea.
Now they are on an expedition along the Bulgarian bank of the river. WWF is also preparing to take an active part in the development of a key trans-border strategy for restoring and protecting the destroyed ecological corridors.
The stocking events was part of the MEASURES Project (Managing and Restoring Aquatic Ecological Corridors for Migratory Fish Species in the Danube River Basin). RY/BR//
LN1611NW.109
109 ENVIRONMENT - DANUBE - STURGEON
Thousands
of Fish Releases
in the Danube in Major Sturgeon Conservation Campaign
Bucharest/Sofia, April 19 (BTA) - Nature conservation and scientific organisations from ten countries along the Danube, including World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Bulgaria, have united to help save one of the most endangered fish in the world, the sturgeon, the Danube-Carpathian WWF programme told BTA. They released one-year old Russian sturgeon raised in fisheries in the vicinity of Isaccea, Romania.
This was part of the activities to restore migrating fish species in the Danube basin. Sturgeon, which have remained nearly unchanged in the last 250 million years, have seen their natural habitat decimated to very few in recent years. Much of the sturgeon populations at reproductive age in the European Union are found in the lower flow of the Danube between Bulgaria and Romania.
Once, Russian sturgeon used to be the most numerous of the sturgeon species in the Danube but its catch has dropped by 99 per cent in just four years.
Recovering the critically endangered populations of Russian sturgeon calls for modern conservation methods. Before they were released, the fish were tagged to enable identification in case of recapture for in-situ surveys, and to assist evaluation of survival rates. This will provide valuable insight for larger stocking plans in the future, WWF Bulgaria said.
A series of similar actions have been undertaken since 2007, with more than 500,000 babies of three sturgeon species released - Russian sturgeon, beluga and starry sturgeon (sterlet).
A simultaneous stocking event took place in Baja, Hungary - with the smallest sturgeon species, the sterlet. Unlike the other types of sturgeon, it does not migrate to and from the Black Sea during the spawning season and spends all its life in fresh water. With a maximum migration of 300 km along the river, today starlet is the most numerous sturgeon species in the Danube.
Sturgeon and other migratory fish species represent the historical, economic and natural heritage of the Danube. Furthermore, they are indicators of the ecological condition of the Danube which has a major function an ecological corridor. Fragmentation of rivers by transversal structures like hydropower dams or flood protection measures poses a threat to natural fish populations as they are no longer able reach their spawning grounds, feeding grounds and wintering habitats.
Transnational management and restoration actions to re-establish these corridors as migration routes, as well as stocking with indigenous species are essential until we have achieved a self-sustaining population again, WWF Bulgaria says.
Today all 27 sturgeon species are on the IUCN Red List, 16 of which are critically endangered.
WWF Bulgaria has a key role in the actions to preserve migratory fish. For years now its experts have been doing field work and in September they underwent specialized training to identify and map the habitats of sturgeon in Tulcea.
Now they are on an expedition along the Bulgarian bank of the river. WWF is also preparing to take an active part in the development of a key trans-border strategy for restoring and protecting the destroyed ecological corridors.
The stocking events was part of the MEASURES Project (Managing and Restoring Aquatic Ecological Corridors for Migratory Fish Species in the Danube River Basin). RY/BR//
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