Heat and drought: "It's going to be absolutely critical" - anglers worry about fish

Created: 08/17/2022, 17:01

By: Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

Concerned about the fish stocks: water warden Ulrich Unflat and the head of the Königsdorf fishing club, Klaus Lange, at Fiechtnersee © sh

Fish suffer from the summer heat.

Anglers are now sounding the alarm, fearing that stocks will die out.

The full extent becomes clear during a visit.

Königsdorf – No, sun worshipers can't complain about this summer.

Temperatures have been cracking the 30 degree mark again and again for weeks, and there is already talk of a record summer.

But one person's joy is another's sorrow, because the fish reach their limits under the rising water temperatures and simultaneously sinking water levels.

Our newspaper was with the chairman of the Königsdorf fishing association, Klaus Lange, and water warden Ulrich Unflat at the Fiechtnersee between Königsdorf and Geretsried.

The lake, like the Schönauer Weiher near Bad Heilbrunn and the airfield pond in Königsdorf, as well as sections of the upper and lower Loisach are part of the club's fishing waters.

Heat and drought: "It's going to be absolutely critical" - anglers worry about fish

The two men let their gaze wander over the heavily submerged water surface.

"If it doesn't rain for a while longer..." says Unflat.

The rest of the sentence is left unspoken.

Due to the summer heat, the level of the groundwater lake has dropped significantly.

The two men estimate by more than a meter.

Long points to the sandbars that have broken through the water surface.

"It looks like a lunar landscape here." On the opposite bank, a jetty rises far above the water level.

"Here we can now pull the boat over the gravel."

Carp, trout and pike: Some of the animals suffer from high temperatures

Carp, trout and pike live in the lake.

Unflat measures the water temperature: "26 degrees." While white fish such as carp can still cope reasonably well with the warmer water, it is already becoming life-threatening for the trout.

The oxygen saturation of the water drops to a critical level.

Temperatures between 13 and 17 degrees are ideal for trout.

"They suffer in the warm water," says Unflat.

"It's an absolute stressful situation for them." As a result, they hardly eat anything.

Bathers are stress factors for fish stocks: "It would be a meltdown"

The fish try to escape to cooler places and gather in pools.

"However, predators and non-predatory fish meet here - so not an optimal situation," says Lange.

In order not to further increase the burden on the animals, Lange and Unflat recommend that the members of the association do not use a fishing rod at the moment.

"We are also very happy that we don't have bathing facilities here at Lake Fiechtner - which would mean further stress for the fish.

That would be the worst case scenario," said Lange.

Current news from Königsdorf can be found here.

The two men have not yet been able to spot dead fish, but that doesn't mean anything.

"They may have sunk to the bottom and only come back to the surface with the fermentation gases that are produced by the decomposition process," Lange points out.

Unflat points to a flock of birds that keep swooping down at the same spot.

"There must be something - the birds don't come here in vain, but when the table is richly set."

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Anglers hope for a change in the weather: "It will be absolutely critical" - fish could not survive in the long term

The two anglers are hoping for a change in the weather soon.

"It will be absolutely critical if the lake doesn't fill up again soon," they agree - also with regard to the winter.

In order for the animals to survive the cold months, they seek out the lowest point on the ground.

Here on the ground there are four degrees.

Your metabolism is kept to a minimum, and your body temperature is reduced.

Due to the fat reserves they eat up in summer, they usually get through the winter unscathed.

"Only if they can't eat anything, what then?" asks Lange.

And: In order to survive in a frozen body of water, they need a minimum water depth of 80 to 100 centimeters.

"If not, they freeze to death."

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