LIFE FOR DANUBE STURGEONS – a project of WWF in Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine, the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority in Romania and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, co-funded by the European Union – has come to an end. In cooperation with fishermen, enforcement authorities and retailers in […]
While the fragmentation of rivers by transversal structures like hydropower dams pose a threat to natural fish populations if they are no longer able to migrate between important habitats, poaching remains one of the significant causes of the “dinosaurs of the Danube” nearing extinction. 26 April 2021 – Hot on the heels of the […]
The fishing association Amur-Nikopol applied for funding to develop the first of its kind boat tourism in the Danube, at the town of Nikopol, in Bulgaria. The application was developed together with WWF, as part of the project “LIFE for Danube Sturgeons”. The idea of the proposal is to use the skills, equipment and qualification […]
Piloting a new method of sturgeon monitoring proves successful in Bulgaria, where fishermen were enabled to report on accidental catches. Between July 2018 and September 2020, WWF has received over 250 photos and videos of sturgeons, taken by fishermen at the Danube and the Black sea. Why use fishermen for sturgeon monitoring? Without systematic […]
A new brochure, related to infringements of sturgeon protection legislation, addresses prosecutors in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. The need for more information for legal professionals on wildlife protection legislation has been expressed by experts from within and outside the system. It is becoming even more important that prosecutors are aware of the significance of […]
Another sturgeon crime case reported in Romania only 4 months after the last major sturgeon poaching incident in Tulcea County In April this year, WWF-Romania reported that 66 frozen Sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) were discovered by the Romanian Border Police in a car trunk in Tulcea County. In Romania, it has been illegal to fish for […]
Since sturgeons like to swim on the gravelly bottom, the present low water level in the Tisza River has enabled poachers to set nets under more favourable conditions in the shallows. Once again, it turned out that the dead of night is the time when poachers are most active. However, fish wardens around the Banat […]
Learn and care about rivers in order to help us NOT to produce this movie. Using the sturgeon release as a launching point, WWF-Bulgaria wanted to use sturgeons and their story to inform people about what is going on with Bulgarian rivers – their problems and those of their inhabitants, and why is it important […]
In only the last month, Romanian law enforcement agencies reported three cases of wildlife crime involving sturgeon, species on the brink of extinction. Sterlet, Stellate and Russian sturgeons were discovered in fishing nets by law enforcement and later released. This is not the first recent case of sturgeon poaching in the area. In October 2019, […]
On April 20, 2020 WWF-Romania reports that 66 frozen Sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) were discovered by the Romanian Border Police in a car trunk in Tulcea County. In Romania, it has been illegal to fish for sturgeon since 2006. According to the IUCN, sturgeons are the most endangered group of species on the planet. “Border Police […]
Massive layoffs due to Covid-19 may put even more pressure on this, the most endangered species on the planet, as people search for alternative income sources. Poachers are not afraid of viruses. Fortunately, the Ukrainian Izmail Frontier Detachment, the Bulgarian Border Police and the Executive Agency of Fisheries and Aquaculture (EAFA) are still very active […]
The “Panda of the Yangtze,” a close relative of the sturgeon family, is now extinct. The new decade 2020 began with the sad announcement that another species is now extinct – the Chinese Paddlefish (Psephurus gladius), a close relative of the sturgeon family. A paper by Chinese scientists concluded (based on IUCN criteria) that after […]
