The first phase of the first part of the task called “Monitoring of fish and lampreys from Annexes II, IV and V of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EWG) including: 1106 Salmo salar, 1163 Cottus gobio, 1149 Cobitis taenia, 1099 Lampetra fluviatilis, within the LIFE13 NAT/PL/000009 project has been finished.
The research, which has been conducted since October 2019 by the Nature Conservation Bureau S.C. at the request of RDEP in Szczecin, includes:
- Quantitative and qualitative monitoring of ichthyofauna.
- Monitoring of invertebrate fauna as a food base for fish.
- Monitoring of spawning grounds – counting spawning nests of two-environment salmonids and a river lamprey.
As a part of the monitoring of ichthyofauna at 56 sites some research was carried out in accordance with the methodology indicated in the textbook “Monitoring of animal species. Methodological guide. Part III. ” GIOŚ 2012, Warsaw edited by M. Makomaska-Juchiewicz and P. Baran. It was aimed at assessing the state of the population and the state of ichthyofauna habitats based on selected indicators.
Invertebrate fauna studies were carried out in accordance with “Methodology for collecting multi-habitat benthic macroinvertebrate samples (RIVECOmacro) in small and medium-sized rivers of Poland for the purpose of ecological monitoring, in accordance with the provisions of the Water Framework Directive”. Macrozoobenthos was collected from various characteristic river habitats occurring on 100 m long research section. A total number of 38 such sections was selected for monitoring purposes.
The inventory of natural breeding places for salmonids was carried out in the months of January and February 2020, after the spawning of salmonids was completed, which in 2019 still lasted in December. During the inventory they moved along the riverbed, sometimes wading in the river and observing the structure of the bottom. Locating the spawning nest, its location in the river bed was described, GPS coordinates were determined and its size as well as the depth at which the spawning ground was located was measured. “Large” nests over 1.0 m in length were entered into the records assuming they are salmon (not trout) nests.
The report on the research described above is available in the “download section”.
The research is being continued in 2020. The second monitoring phase is planned to be carried out in the months of April – May.
At the same time, since September 2019 as a part of task no. 2 of the monitoring, the Inland Fisheries Institute in Olsztyn has been monitoring the work of a special scanner (reading and analyzing data), which will allow to determine the number and species composition of fish passing a fish pass built as a part of the project at EW Kamienna on the Drawa. In addition, in late spring and summer 2020 some monitoring is to be carried out on 4 fish passes in the Drawa river basin with the use of fish marking methods using RFID coded markers. The test will allow to determine the percentage distribution of fish migrating through the fish ladder in relation to the total marked sample, and thus the efficiency of the constructed objects. Detailed reports describing the results of this part of the monitoring will be known in October 2020.
Films from the scanner
