Last year, the partner of the life REEF project of the Nature Conservation Agency, the Scientific Institute of Food Safety, animal Health and Environment “BIOR” (Institute), started research of the round goby on the Baltic Sea coast, releasing 8,000 round gobies with special marks on the South Kurzeme coast and the Gulf of Riga. After receiving 245 posts about catching and releasing the labeled round gobies, the researchers concluded that the round goby exhibits pronounced territorial behavior. In particular, 66% of all the designated round gobies were still within a radius of nearly two kilometres of the initial release points within two weeks of their release into the sea.

“In large part, these passive movement dynamics can be explained by the species-specific poor buoyancy and low-moving lifestyle,” emphasizes Loreta Rozenfelde, a specialist in the Institute's Department of Fish Resource Research. And goes on: 'the success of the study was, to a direct extent, and depends on the participation of fishermen. Their reports have led to the first conclusions of the round goby study, which will be an important milestone in the process of drawing up the fisheries management plan in the future. "

If another round goby with a T-bar tag has been caught in the Baltic Sea, we encourage you to report it to the Marine Department of the Institute's Fish Resources Research Department by phone at 20239304 or by writing an e-mail toivars.putnis@bior.lv.

When communicating, it is necessary to report the code visible on the sign, the full length of the fish in cm, the fishing gear, fishing duration, date and location coordinates. It is also necessary to send a photo of the fish so that the special code can be seen on it. The caught fish can also be frozen and stored whole for later transfer to the institute.

Photo: BIOR