The municipality of Loosdorf, the Austrian Friends of Nature, WWF and the Federal Environment Ministry would bear part of the costs - an indication of the broad base on which the project was founded. The project counted on the support of licensed anglers who had been campaigning for the preservation of the huchen for years. All this was to be implemented in close cooperation with the water authorities, and involving landowners and holders of rights to use water. bank erosion) do not conflict with agriculture and other land uses, and suitable spawning grounds are formed. In addition to these main measures, it was also planned to create buffer strips along the banks of meanders so that fluviatile dynamics (e.g.
This would be done by removing or altering weirs and other obstacles so that fish would be able to pass through. The aim was to improve migration opportunities for the huchen and other endangered river fish such as Chondrostoma nasus and Barbus barbus over a total length of 78 km by opening up the Pielach and Melk/Mank rivers and linking them with the freely flowing stretch of the Danube in the Wachau district. Whereas some stretches of the Pielach are still in their natural state, the Melk has been altered considerably by regulation and canalisation works. The project area covers the middle and lower stretches of the Pielach and Melk/Mank rivers in Lower Austria, with a total length of 45 km. Since the species has all but disappeared in Bavaria, the remaining natural huchen stocks in the four Austrian Danube tributaries Mur, Pielach, Drau and Gail were the largest in the European Union in the late 1990s. Whereas previously stock depletion was due mainly to water pollution and overfishing, today other factors are responsible: barriers like dams often present insurmountable obstacles for spawning fish and prevent exchange between subpopulations, while watercourse regulation has led to the loss of important spawning and feeding grounds. The huchen or Danube salmon (Hucho hucho), the largest central European salmonid, whose natural habitat is restricted to the Danube river system, was once widespread in Austria but is now in danger of extinction.
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