The backwaters of the Rába were visited

Together with our professional partners, our association is looking for habitat development opportunities. Among the complex tasks of our association is the protection of natural waters and the maintenance of their ecological status - in addition to serving the needs of fishing, managing fishing waters and educating the youth - it comes to the fore less often, even though our fishermen and those interested in nature are constantly monitoring our activities in this direction.

Without announcing concrete good news in advance, we would like to inform our fellow fishermen who are concerned about the Rába and its fish stocks that on July 16, the staff of our Association will, together with the staff of the Őrségi National Park Administration and the Balaton Limnological Research Institute, take into account the preliminary requirements of several tender sources, during a site visit they reviewed the backwaters of the Rába River, which can serve as a undisturbed living and breeding place for native, mainly rheophilic fish species in the event of a new connection with the main riverbed.

After the preliminary, map-based discussion and consultation, the participants visited the locations from the upper reaches of the Rába to Ikervár that best meet the conditions specified in the call for tenders, assigning a possible preference in terms of recoverable backwaters. The parties agreed that the primary goal of backwater restorations is not fishing, but ecological benefits related to fish and their habitat.

Prior to the visit, in 2021, 11 possible locations were identified and pre-surveyed with the staff of the National Park Directorate, during which, in addition to the expected costs of the intervention, the ownership conditions and the importance of the new habitat came to the fore. We hope that the currently published international tender will provide an opportunity for complete planning and the acquisition of water rights permits for the upper section of the river, which is the first step towards a major ecological intervention. In addition, our association, together with its professional partners, is looking for the opportunity to carry out smaller backwater rehabilitations on several sections of the river, even with domestic resources.

Reconnecting the closed and refilling backwaters brings numerous advantages from the point of view of nature conservation and fish management. The backwaters, reconnected to the main bed and supplied with fresh water, serve as an increased habitat and breeding ground for our protected and catchable fish species, as well as protected arthropod, amphibian and reptile species, they promote the growth of planktonic organisms that provide food for hatched fish fry, and they improve the groundwater supply and microclimate of their environment.

We hope that by using tender funds, it will be possible to plan and then implement the restoration of one or more backwaters in the Rába section of Vas Vármegyei. If we can report concrete results, we will immediately inform the fishing community and those interested in the Rába River!