Première opération de rempoissonnement au moyen de barbeaux (Barbus barbus) et de chevaines (Leuciscus cephalus) produits en pisciculture expérimentale. Note technique

On Octobre 3, 1983, a stock of 300 barbels and 2800 chubs reared at the Tihange fish culture station (supplied with heated water from a power plant on the Meuse River) were used for a first trial of restocking two stations in the River Ourthe (from where the eggs and milt were collected for artificial reproduction) and three stations in the Mehaigne stream, both tributaries of the River Meuse. The average size of the fish released into the wild was 18,7 cm (males : 16,1 cm; female : 21,3 cm) for the 14 months old barbel and 5,0 cm for the 4 month old chubs. This experiment had two main aims : 1) to investigate the growth and survival of individually tagged barbels produced in a hatchery under intensive rearing conditions and artificial feeding and 2) to undertake a restoration of the barbel and chub populations in the Mehaigne stream in which pollution problems have resulted in the virtual extinction of the barbel and the strong decrease of the chub abundance. In a next future, we plan to develop a mass production of barbel and chub fry and fingerlings and a restoration programme of these species in the River Meuse basin.