Our MEASURES project got to the halfway and we are proud to announce the highlights of main achievements. Having on board 12 partners from 8 countries in the Danube region, the project targets the conservation of ecological corridors for sturgeons and other migratory fish species.

18 months into the project, the consortium has managed to involve and raise awareness among a broad variety of stakeholders via radio, TV, social media, newspaper, journals and at scientific conferences. A database of relevant authorities and potential stakeholders to be further involved in the project was compiled. The first round of multi-level and multi-stakeholder workshops have been conducted in each country.

The MEASURES Information System (MIS) has been developed as an open and interactive information system, which will provide synthetic reports and documents for policy and decision-makers as well as for the general public.

At the same time, a training of 20 experts in fish habitat mapping was conducted in order to harmonize the methodological approaches. In order to secure this harmonization process beyond the projects duration, a first draft of the migratory fish habitat-mapping manual was developed. The partners jointly locate, describe and map existing migratory fish habitats as a prerequisite for conservation and revitalization of these flagship species. eDNA sampling was performed in synergy with the fourth Joint Danube Survey (JDS4). The samples are currently being processed in the laboratory to provide more reliable information about the distribution patterns of rare species.

The first conservational restocking events of 5000 sterlets  and more than 1000 Russian sturgeons took place and the devlepment of 2 pilot broodstock facilities started.

Finally, a transnational harmonized strategy to manage and restore the Danube as an ecological corridor for long- and medium distance migratory fish species is currently being developed. It integrates MEASURES key findings ready to be incorporated into management, policy plans and EU-legislation.