ProtectFish is an EU-funded research project under the Programme “Horizon Europe Research & Innovation”. Its objective is to fill data gaps, study management options and build dialogue among the stakeholders to deliver policy recommendations for the conservation of protected EU river fish populations.
Freshwater ecosystems are heavily stressed by multiple pressures – physical barriers, chemical and organic, a documented increasing predation pressure – which are strongly affecting the survival chances of many EU river fish species. The ProtectFish project will focus its activities on the cormorant-grayling conflict, by assessing the impact of cormorants predation on the poor status of EU-protected river fish species.
The project’s main objectives are to:
- update & expand the scientific knowledge of cormorant populations in the EU and assess effective, balanced, and feasible methods for their management.
- evaluate the current conservation status, monitoring, and protective measures of EU-listed river-fish species.
- using current and new data on the status of fish and cormorant populations and their interactions, generate knowledge-based recommendations for balanced, integrative and adaptive management of river biodiversity.
The project’s final output will be policy recommendations on how to improve Europe’s rivers’ declining biodiversity. These recommendations will be resulting from the collection of EU-wide data, extensive field-experiments carried out with the help of hundreds of volunteers and discussions with local stakeholders on the basis of the preliminary results achieved. An External Advisory Board composed by key experts and stakeholders will be closely following the project’s progress.