​The life is coming back into the Bílina River that flows through the Ústí region. Inspections have shown that they are doing well and even spawning. The success was also experienced by the reproducing ide population which is protected species in the Czech Republic. The company Unipetrol in cooperation with the Czech Fishing Union has been reintroducing the fish into the river since 2010. 

“We launched the cooperation with the Czech Fishing Union in 2010. Since that time, we have released several hundreds of kilograms of fish. In the first phase, we focused mainly on carp and ide”, says Mikuláš Duda, Press Department Manager of Unipetrol. The next releasing was focused on other species such as roach, common rud, European perch, crucian carp and the common bream.  

Fish are not only surviving but also reproducing 

The fruitfulness of fish-releasing is controlled constantly. This year´s control was carried out in the neighbourhood of northern Bohemian Stadice, Hostomice, Železice and České Zlatníky. “The results are great. In all cases, it was noticed that the introduced species in the river survive successfully“, says Mikuláš Duda. Even better information is that the fish have found such good living conditions here and they spawn themselves. “We have fished out the spawn of ide and also about one-year-old fish. This is excellent information and it shows that the purity of the river has improved so much that life begins to recover by itself, without human help”, said Václav Jelínek, fishing technician of the North Bohemian Regional Union of the Czech Fishing Union. According to him, they managed to choose such species that are suitable for the character of Bílina and in time, there will be much wider spectrum of fish that originally lived in the river. 

“The released fish originate from the Bílina River and are also bred in the catchment in a special fish facility in Chabařovice. In that manner, grown-up individuals better tolerate the conditions in the river and we can exclude all risks connected with the adaptation of fish to the new environment. Each year, we prepare the required amount of fish for releasing“, says Václav Jelínek from the Union.

The company Unipetrol has been going through the second phase which began in 2013 and followed up to the first phase of the project. The first one was implemented in 2010-2012. Unipetrol invested more than 325,000 into releasing of tens of thousands of fish. The last release was in April 2014 (ca 300 kg of fish). The next release is planned for autumn 2014.