During the last November (2014) we released more than 11 thousand sterlets in the aquatory of Nature park “Persina”. This year we continued with the release of the remaining 40 000 in the region of Lom and Vetren and thus we covered the upper, middle and lower part of the river.
The sterlets are raised in close to the natural conditions and each one is marked with a unique tag, which will allow us to recognize them later. We are also doing research on the places for reproduction of the sturgeons –during a three years period our experts accumulated 420 days of terrain work in search for small sturgeons and fertilized eggs. Two teams tried out different methods for catching of fertilized eggs and small fish. A year ago we caught Apostol – a newly hatched great sturgeon, which appeared in the nets of the team during the last letting for the day on the exactly on the Danube day.
The challenges of conservation and bringing up of the threatened species are sometimes unforeseeable. One of the factors is the temperature of the Danube for example – the year of 2013 was the coldest for the last 100 years, and year 2014 was the warmest.
“We faced unexpected difficulties in the very beginning - during the breeding of the sturgeons. It was very difficult to find who to breed the fishes – we had to put on a procurement procedure twice. Afterwards we had problems with the fishes themselves – we didn’t manage to breed sturgeons. But everything was a useful experience and we managed to achieve the most important – to test and establish the working methods. We already know what is necessary and we hope the State will take up the baton with regular resettlements on a larger scale and thus to support the recovery of the species”, explained Veselina Kavrakova, the Country Manager of WWF Bulgaria.
We also made an evaluation of the legislature for the sturgeons. “The plan for action for preservation of the sturgeon fishes expired at the end of 2014. We made recommendations for its continuation and we hope they will be examined soon and a new adequate plan for action will be accepted”, commented Ms. Kavrakova.
All our efforts would have had a small effect if we hadn’t involved also the local communities in the preservation of the sturgeons. Trainings for applying for European programs for agriculture and fishery for fishermen were started in October 2014. With our help a fishing association was created in Nikopol and we will continue to support it, especially with its application for their pilot project.
We also included the fishermen association of the village of Vetren in this year’s terrain research for small sterlets. We trained the fishermen in the methods of monitoring of the sturgeon species. Thus they will be able to take part in a future governmental program for monitoring of the Danube river. Such programs exist in a number of other European countries like Romania.
To start a serious program for the conservation of the sturgeons we also contacted the farms for breeding of sturgeons. Three farms in Bulgaria and four in Romania made the first step by signing an ethical codex for the producers of caviar and sturgeon’s products, and showed in theis way their engagement in the conservation of the wild sturgeon populations.
Everyone can become a defender of the sturgeons in the Danube, see how at https://www.spasetedivatapriroda.bg/esetra
More information about the sturgeons you can find on the site of WWF and at esetri.wwf.bg. If you are interested in photos of WWF’s work for the sturgeons, don’t hesitate to contact us.
50 000 new sterlets swim in the river for the Day of Danube
