Enlarge image
Bon voyage: In a few nights, most of the eels will start their long journey into the sea
Photo: SGD North
This year, professional fishermen in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland went out by ship 18 times to transport eels from river to river by boat.
This was announced by the Structure and Approval Directorate North (SGD) in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The goal of the fishermen: to help the European eel, the only native fish species that reproduces in the sea, on its long and arduous migration.
If they try to pass the hydroelectric power plants along the Moselle, the animals can otherwise suffer serious injuries in the turbines.
Eel migration probability of over 86 percent
For almost three decades, sexually mature eels have therefore been caught from the Moselle between May and November and brought safely past the weirs to the Rhine with the so-called eel taxi.
Since the exact number of lively fish cannot be precisely determined, the weight of the transported eels is recorded for the statistics.
The animals weighed a total of 9,774 kilograms this year - a record, as reported by the SGD.
Around 859 kilograms of this total did not come from Rhineland-Palatinate, but from the Saarland section of the Saar.
With the help of a new forecast model, it was also possible to predict for several days in 2022 when the eels would start their journey.
During these nights, the operator of the hydroelectric power plants switched off the turbines so that the fish can safely pass through the plants.
This happened for the first time on a night in October, when an eel migration probability of over 86 percent had been predicted.
The prognosis was based on data such as temperature, rainfall and water runoff from the Moselle.
According to the SGD, there are around two to five nights per year when the majority of eels begin their journey to the sea.
swe