There has been a scheme running since 1992 to encourage the houting population of the Rhine region. This has been jointly managed by the Federal State Ministry of the Environment (MUNLV), the Düsseldorf municipal government and the Rheinfischereigenossenschaft [Rhine Fisheries Cooperative??]. The University of Cologne is responsible for the scientific side of the project. The young fish that are put out into the wild come from the North German or Danish North Sea region, and so are very close to the former fish populating the Rhine (who by today have probably died out).
Great numbers of houting young are in the meantime being found in the Netherlands, and in 2005 too?? the first fish coming upriver to spawn were registered in the Lower Rhine. This provides convincing evidence of the success of the scheme.
After the initial stock comes to an end with the alevin stage, from the year 2007 it is hoped that control measures will be intensified to register the project’s success. One possibility would be to tag young fish or spawning fish with transmitters (transponders). This could yield important information on the life of the houting in the Rhine system today.
