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Re‐establishment of the North Sea houting in the River Rhine
Author(s) -
BORCHERDING J.,
HEYNEN M.,
JÄGERKLEINICKE T.,
WINTER H. V.,
ECKMANN R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
fisheries management and ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1365-2400
pISSN - 0969-997X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2400.2009.00710.x
Subject(s) - citation , library science , limnology , geography , fishery , ecology , computer science , biology
The anadromous fish species North Sea houting, Coregonus oxyrinchus (L.), became extinct in the River Rhine (Kranenbarg et al. 2002) and many other rivers draining to the North Sea in the 1940s (Lelek 1987). The cause was believed to be a combination of overfishing, poor water quality, habitat loss and fragmentation and barriers hampering upstream migrations (De Groot & Nijssen 1997). Since the 1980s, water quality in the River Rhine has greatly improved, many migration barriers were facilitated with fishways (De Leeuw et al. 2005) and no commercial fisheries on houting existed after its extinction. Thus, a large part of the possible causes for extinction were mitigated. Given the small size and isolation from the only remaining houting population in Denmark, it was decided to reintroduce houting in the German section of the River Rhine (cf. Hodder & Bullock 1997). Descendants of the last known reproducing popUlation