Conservation of Endangered Freshwater Fish in Europe

Two events have recently improved the prospects of protecting fish and their environment in Switzerland: the acceptance of a new Federal Water Protection Law in the plebiscite of May 17th 1992, and the new Federal Legislation on Fisheries, in force since January 1st 1994. With this legal framework, the possibilities for protection of nature and landscape have now considerably improved in Switzerland. The most important aims of the Federal Law on Water Protection are to safeguard the natural habitats of the native flora and fauna and water as the habitat of aquatic organisms. This includes not only the preservation or restoration of water quality in lakes and rivers, but also, in rivers used for hydroelectricity, irrigation or as industrial or other water supplies, the maintenance of sufficient water to fulfill the minimal requirements for fish. However, good quality water in sufficient quan tities alone is not enough to guarantee the survival of fish. Intact fish habitats comprise various phYsical structures including plenty of hiding places, hunting grounds, reproduction and nursery areas within suitable distances from each other. This third aspect of conservation and restoration of aquatic habitats is a central point in the new Federal Law on Fisheries. Whereas the former versions of this law were more concerned with fishery regulations, the recent legislation defines new areas of responsibility for the federal and the cantonal governments.

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General considerations regarding the decline of species.- Red lists.- Threatened freshwater fishes of Great Britain.- Scottish natural heritage and fish conservation in Scotland.- Endangered freshwater fish in Ireland.- Endangered freshwater fish: The situation in France.- Endangered freshwater fish of Spain.- The Red Data List of the freshwater lampreys (Cyclostomata) and fishes (Pisces) of Slovenia.- Threatened freshwater fish in Hungary.- Vanishing freshwater fish species of Slovakia.- The status of the fish fauna in the Czech Republic.- Endangered fishes of the River Morava (Czech Republic).- Species conservation: Ecology, taxonomy and genetics.- Long-term changes in the fish community of Neusiedler See (Burgenland, Austria).- Natural regeneration of endangered fish populations in the Pilica drainage basin after reducing human impacts.- Fish conservation in Switzerland - three case-studies.- The decline of the European sturgeon Acipenser sturio in the Baltic and North Sea.- Occurrence and distribution of twaite shad (Alosa fallax Lacépède) in the lower Elbe River, Germany.- Rehabilitation of salmon (Salmo salar L.) in Denmark; state, objectives and methods.- The role of natural and artificial propagation on the genetic diversity of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) of the upper Rhône drainage.- Cellulose acetate electrophoresis for screening transferrin polymorphism in brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) populations.- Decline and conservation of migrating brown trout (Salmo trutta f. lacustris L.) of Lake Constance.- The conservation ecology of Coregonus albula and C. lavaretus in England and Wales, UK.- Gonadal abnormalities in Coregonus peled Gmel. × Coregonus lavaretus L. hybrids, introduced into natural waters.- Threatened populations and conservation of the Europeangrayling, Thymallus thymallus (L., 1758).- Reproduction and habitat preference of the threatened spirlin (Alburnoides bipunctatus Bloch) and soufie (Leuciscus souffia Risso) under laboratory conditions (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).- Distribution of YOY-barbel Barbus barbus (L.) in the River Sieg/Germany.- Drift, habitat choice and growth of the nase (Chondrostoma nasus, Cyprinidae) during early life stages.- Chondrostoma nasus - its reproduction strategy and possible reasons for a widely observed population decline - a review.- Contribution to the knowledge of the distribution and spawning grounds of Chondrostoma nasus and Chondrostoma toxostoma (Pisces, Cyprinidae) in Switzerland.- Spawning grounds of Chondrostoma soetta Bonaparte, 1840 (Cyprinidae) in Southern Switzerland.- The artificial propagation and culture of young weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis L.).- Description of Knipowitschia punctatissima croatica, (Pisces: Gobiidae), a new freshwater goby from Dalmatia, Croatia.- The sculpin of the Lez spring (South France), Cottus petiti (Bacescu and Bacescu - Mester, 1964), one of the most threatened fish species in Europe.- Conservation of samaruc, Valencia hispanica (Valenciennes, 1846), (Pisces: Cyprinodontidae), an endemic and endangered species, in the community of Valencia (east Spain).- Workshop reports.- Workshop I: Faunistic surveys and vulnerability assessments.- Workshop II: Conservation of European mudminnow, Umbra krameri.- Workshop III: Management and rehabilitation of habitat of endangered fishes.