The Morava is a river flowing through the southeastern part of the Czech Republic, including the Břeclav area and the Litovelské Pomoraví Protected Landscape Area near Olomouc.[1][2]
Stocking of the sterlet
On 29 September 2026, representatives of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Česko) released about 2,100 sterlets at four sites into the Morava and Thaya rivers in the Břeclav area.[2] The fish were reared at the Pohořelice fish farm (Rybníkářství Pohořelice) and are fitted with a chip that makes it possible to track their movement in the stream.[2]
WWF Česko spokesman Lukáš Hrábek told journalists that the sterlet is a native fish of large European rivers, but that its numbers are currently not sufficient for the fish to reproduce on their own in the rivers and populate them.[2] According to Hrábek, it is the only sturgeon species that does not migrate from rivers all the way to the sea, which makes its artificial stocking in Czechia possible.[2] He added that the fish can migrate hundreds of kilometres, but its route on the Danube is limited by the Iron Gates dam on the border between Serbia and Romania.[2] The released sterlets are descendants of wild Danube sterlets.[2]
Sturgeon expert Bořek Drozd said that the return of the sterlet to Czech rivers requires monitoring how the fish are doing in the river, where they move and what living conditions they find there, and that monitoring with chips is used for this.[2]
In spring of the same year, WWF Česko released young sterlets into the Morava river in the Litovelské Pomoraví Protected Landscape Area near Olomouc; unlike the fish released later, they hatched directly in the river in special incubation boxes placed in the stream and were released as miniature fry.[2]
Sterlet
The sterlet can grow to a length of more than one metre and a weight of about 15 kilograms, and feeds on aquatic insect larvae, worms and crustaceans.[2]
Sources
- Ekolist.cz — 29 September 2026
- ČTK / České noviny — 29 September 2026