Restoration and ecology of sterlets in the Austrian Danube – The way from LIFE-Sterlet to LIFE-Boat-4-Sturgeon

Sturgeons are an essential faunal element of the Danube and provided a link between the Alpine Danube basin and the Black Sea through their migration in the past. Today, two out of six Danube sturgeons are already regionally extinct, and the remaining species are threatened with extinction due to poaching, bycatch, migration barriers and habitat loss. A variety of projects are pushing conservation and reintroduction efforts. However, those projects only have a chance of success in a coordinated manner and within international cooperation. The aim of the LIFE-Sterlet project was to strengthen the population of the highly endangered sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) in the Upper Danube and to increase the knowledge about habitat use, migration and autecology.  The follow-up project LIFE-Boat 4 Sturgeon builds upon the methods and results of the LIFE-Sterlet project and has the aim to create a genetically diverse captive broodstock of mature animals of the last four Danube sturgeon species.