300,000 euros will be allocated this year for fish breeding

The Minister for the Environment approves the allocation of funds from the Environment Support Programme for fish breeding. This year, €300,000 has been allocated for this purpose, about €50,000 more than in previous years.

As the Ministry of the Environment has announced, the funds allocated for fish breeding are used for fish breeding only in public water bodies where no fishing permits have been issued, i.e. water bodies that have not been leased. Leased water bodies are stocked by their lessees in accordance with fish breeding plans valid for 10 years.

„In order to maintain a sufficient number of predatory fish in the water bodies, the main fish stocked are pike, which are often caught by amateur fishermen. Last year, more than 100,000 of this year's pike, as well as white bream and spotted bream, were introduced in 38 national water bodies listed in the Fish and Crayfish Restocking Plan for 2025, with funding from the Ministry of Environment. The number of fish stocked this year is expected to be even higher," the Ministry of the Environment said.

The abundance of predatory fish is particularly important in water bodies whose ecological status should be improved due to past pollution. In such cases, bio-manipulation measures based on research recommendations are applied to increase the abundance of predatory fish and reduce the abundance of cyprinids.

Predator fish numbers are further increased by stocking pike. In order to effectively control the abundance of planktophagous and benthophagous fish through biomanipulation, the predator biomass should represent at least 25% of the total biomass of all fish.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, fish stocking is not carried out when water bodies are frozen, but will start after the ice has melted and the spring is well underway, with the most intensive stocking taking place in autumn.

Data on the stocking activities already carried out are available in the Biodiversity Information System. The map shows the results of stocking activities carried out by public authorities and fishery users, as well as the date, time and location of planned stocking activities.