site.btaPoaching Is One of Main Threats for Sturgeons in Lower Danube

Poaching is one of the main threats for sturgeons in the Lower Danube, warned Thursday a report prepared by the conservation organization WWF. The document compiles data collected from Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine and is the only one of its kind examining the regional problem of sturgeon populations that migrate between these countries. The information in the report is particularly worrying given that, despite the threat of sturgeon extinction in Europe, illegal sturgeon fishing continues.

The study identified 337 cases of illegal activities involving sturgeon recorded between 2016 and 2022. Most of them were located in Bulgaria (130), while 125 were in Romania and 82 in Ukraine. They include violations of fishing bans and regulations, seizures of illegal fishing gear, and the illicit trade of sturgeon and sturgeon-based products.

WWF highlights that three of the four remaining species of sturgeon in the Lower Danube are Critically Endangered (the beluga, the stellate and the Russian sturgeon), while the other, the sterlet, was upgraded to Endangered last year.

"These alarming figures prove that poaching and illegal trade of wild sturgeon continues across the Lower Danube, undermining efforts to save these iconic fish - especially as we know that many more sturgeon crimes go unreported," said WWF Sturgeon Initiative Lead Beate Striebel.

"Sturgeon have swum in the Danube for millions of years but we will lose them forever if we can't halt the illegal catches and trade of wild caviar and meat," she added. 

WWF Freshwater Project Manager Stoyan Mihov noted that sturgeons, like other migratory fish, play an important role as an indicator of healthy ecosystems in the river. “Reaching present times from the age of the dinosaurs, they have evolved in a complex competitive environment. Most sturgeon species are at the top of the food chain and have few natural enemies other than humans,” he explained.

Kozloduy in Bulgaria, Tulcea in Romania, and Odesa in Ukraine emerged as the main hotspots - representing over 1/3rd of reported cases in each country.

In Bulgaria, WWF collaborated with the Bulgarian border police to successfully utilise underwater sonar equipment. The innovative adaptation of this technology aids in the detection of “karmaci”, a traditional, yet illegal, hook line used for sturgeon fishing. Despite being hard to detect due to their sub-surface placement, sonars have facilitated the discovery of 131 “karmaci” in 2022 alone, marking significant progress regardless of the ongoing challenges in extraction and confiscation.

Bulgaria has designated a protected area for sturgeons on the Danube near the village of Vetren (Silistra region) and the lake Srebarna, where the migrating fish are safe for a year. The protected area "Sturgeons - Vetren" covers an area of 2,884 hectares or as many as 404 football fields. This is the first protected area in Bulgaria to protect the habitat of the critically endangered sturgeon.

"The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies sturgeons as the most endangered group of species in the world. That is why the WWF team is working to protect their habitat on the Danube as a priority. It monitors the entire length of the river from Novo Selo to Silistra, studying the tracks of the last surviving and breeding sturgeons in the European Union. To help their declining populations, over the past nine years conservationists have released more than 77,000 tagged sterlets, Russian sturgeons and moray eels into the Danube," said WWF Senior Freshwater and Biodiversity Expert Borislava Margaritova.

The main target for conservation in the protected area are the sturgeon, whose offspring have chosen this stretch of the river as a feeding and resting ground on their hundreds of kilometres long journey to the sea. In addition to sturgeons, however, over 40 other fish species have been found in this small stretch of the river, half of which are listed in Bulgaria’s Red Data Book.