The latest in our 2014 series of #GAP2exchange trips has taken place. A team of scientists, fishers, and policy managers from GAP2′s Lake Vättern case study in Sweden traveled to Lake Constance to see what can come out of mutual knowledge-sharing for lake fisheries. In this blogpost, Dr Alfred Sandström highlights the lessons learnt on the first day.
“ They are ambitious.. ..and they seem to make a serious effort! ” – Some words from Zeth Rylander, commercial fisherman working in the GAP2 Lake Vättern case-study when reflecting on the first day of the exchange.
We started our venture around Lake Constance with a visit to the Institute of Limnology in Konstanz (http://www.limnologie.uni-konstanz.de). Dr. Dietmar Straile and his colleagues received us and gave a number of interesting lectures about their research on Lake Constance. After lunch we took a ferry trip over the crystal clear water to the other side of the lake to meet Dr. Michael Schubert and his colleagues at Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschafts Institut für Fischerei (http://www.lfl.bayern.de/ifi/). They showed us one of the main fish culture stations that produce fish that are released into Lake Constance. After a long day, packed with information we summarized the first days experience. The take-home-messages Day 1 were:
The magnitude of stocking is very high and seemed to be of large importance for the fishery. Something that struck us as very different compared to Lake Vättern where almost all fishing is based on natural reproduction.
These three countries (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) and five different states seem to have found a system where they are able to unite and find a consensus in the management of their fisheries. If three countries are able to agree on things than it must be possible for a fishery governed entirely by one country to find common solutions?
Follow the exchange: @GAP2_Project / #GAP2exchange www.facebook.com/GAP2 Project in Swedish on: www.slu.se