Ecomare

Four species from this family are: smelt, pike salmon and sea trout. Salmon and sea trout lay their eggs in river beds, live the first part of their life in fresh water but spend the rest of their life in the sea. Such fish are referred to as anadromous. They have become rare in European waters due to pollution and hydraulic regulations, such as making brooks and rivers into canals. The (sport) fisheries for salmon and sea trout will soon be banned. The purpose is to bring these species back into the rivers of Western Europe. Hopefully, this will be possible along the gravel banks of the Sieg, an unnavigatible German side river of the Rijn and a former spawning region for andromous species. Salmon eggs were found in 1997. Sea trout started spawning in the Sieg several years earlier.