Reverrons-nous des saumons dans la Meuse ?

The Atlantic salmon was very abundant in the entire Meuse basin (France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany) until the mid-19 th century. From that time on, the salmon gradually disappeared from the Meuse river and its tributary with an extinction being completed by the years 1935-1940. This decline of the Meuse salmon was caused by various environmental impacts (buiding of navigation weirs and locks and hydroelectric dams, increasing urban and industrial water pollution, river channelization) and an apathy towards fishery regulations which allowed overexploitation and poaching by professional net fisherman (especially in The Netherlands) and sport anglers. During the last decade, a sea trout population was proven to be recovering in the Dutch and Belgian Meuse River and in several Belgian tributaries- the Ourthe and Ambleve River, previously recognized as excellent salmon rivers. In our mind, this major ecological event demonstrates that it should also probably be possible to restore a Atlantic salmon run in the River Meuse, at the prime condition that appropriate planting operations of fry and fingerlings are undertaken. The present paper paper briefly examines the numerous problems posed by such a restoration programe : impasses to upstream migrations, building of salmon ladders on dams, reduction of water pollution, increasing the availability and quality of the potential spawning grounds, improving the fishery regulations given the international status of the Meuse River, identifying the best methodologies for starting a reintroduction programme.