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Bleckede (dpa / lni) - With around 450,000 released young eels, the population of migratory fish in the Elbe is to be secured.

In Bleckede in the Lüneburg district and other places on the river and its tributaries, glass eels were released for the 16th time on Wednesday - a total of 149 kilograms.

They measure only six to seven centimeters and are almost transparent.

On average, the animals weighed only 0.3 grams, as the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture announced.

They should later migrate to their spawning area when fully grown.

The cost of the campaign was 40,000 euros.

Experts assume that European eels only mate in the Sargasso Sea in the western Atlantic.

This is a marine area east of Florida and south of the Bermuda Islands.

The young animals should then come back to Europe with the Gulf Stream.

A new scientific publication is currently focusing on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a spawning area, the Chamber continued to say.

The parent animals would only cover half of the previously assumed distance.

The released glass eels were caught on the French Atlantic coast.

From January to spring, the animals are caught on the coasts and in the estuaries of France, Spain and England.

From there they travel chilled to the Elbe, which is considered a good growing body of water.

The water quality has steadily improved over the past decades.

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Many factors are discussed for the decline in the population, especially since the mid-1980s.

These include climate change and damage from turbines and other structures, but also pollutants in the water, parasites, cormorants and fishing.

With the help of young eels, the significantly reduced eel population in the Elbe is to be rebuilt.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210318-99-869747 / 2

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