Little fish, big fishback

 

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Would you raise your children on a motorway? Probably not. The River Rhine is a kind of motorway, however. Since its channel has been dredged to improve navigability, it flows quite fast. But many fish, including pike, rudd, and tench prefer to deposit their spawn in quiet streams and ponds. In contrast to the fast-flowing Rhine, these offer sheltered corners with abundant vegetation among which the little fish can hide once they have hatched. In the good old days there were spawning grounds aplenty. The Rhine meandered across its floodplains, constantly changing its channel and creating numerous oxbow lakes. The channelization of the riverbed mostly put an end to all that. The river's channel is clearly defined, most old channels have been cut off, and a change in the course of the main channel is unthinkable. That is why the mouth of the Old Rhine at Urdenbach is so important for the river's biodiversity and fish stock. It enables the fish living in the River Rhine to migrate to quiet spawning grounds. The mouths of streams and similar ways of access to wetland waters along the River Rhine ensure the survival of fish species which need still waters for reproduction. It is a sad fact that links between the main channel and quiet wetland waters have become very rare. The mouth of the Old Rhine at Urdenbach is one of the last natural stream mouths on the Lower Rhine. It provides access to the last surviving uncontrolled floodplains on the Lower Rhine for all the various fish species that require a wetland habitat for reproduction and development. For the little fish spending their childhood in the wetlands, the mouth of the stream also symbolizes the threshold to adulthood. Once they are fully grown, the fish enter the river and spend most of their lives there.

Photo: Joschka Meiburgback