The Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters USB, as well as the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, condemns the act of invading Ukraine by Russia and fully supports Ukrainian friends. The FFPW USB crisis group, which members are available 24/7 (list of members (without titles) - Pavel Kozák, Martin Kocour, Vladimír Žlábek, Tomáš Randák, Petr Císař, Jan Kašpar, Michal Hojdekr, Jaromíra Vondrášková, Mirka Průšová, Milada Vazačová, Lucie Kačerová), was activated within the faculty support. There also have been prepared the accommodated capacities for Ukrainian refugees and a special scholarship for new bachelor´s and master´s students. If you are willing to support financially students of our university, you can send money to the transparent account of the USB Student Union. You can read more about the university and other faculties support here.

More information about FFPW USB help for Ukraine and to Ukrainan students you can find here.  

Our colleagues Ján Regenda and Markéta Prokešová Dvořákova performed before Christmas (Saturday 23 December 2023) on the program Natura of the Český rozhlas Plus. They talked about their work, the RAGO project and the issue of ecological fish farming in the Czech Republic. There was also an invitation to the Open Door Day at the FFPW USB, which will be held on 19th January 2024.

You can listen to the Natura program here.

The creators of the gardening magazine Zelené světy, the moderator and gardening duo Hanka Šoberová and Pavel Chlouba, went on a short visit to the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. You can listen to the interview here.

Read an interesting article about the Institute of complex systems FFPW USB. You can download the text here.

Listen to the interview of the Český rozhlas České Budějovice with our scientist and the CENAKVA director doc. Vladimír Žlábek.

Foto: Judita Šímová, Český rozhlas

The fishing website inRybar.cz published an article about our faculty, the breeding of unique fish species and the Genetic Fisheries Center of the Research Institute of Fish Culture and Hydrobiology FFPW USB. You can read the article here (only in Czech).

Our colleague RNDr. Bořek Drozd, Ph.D. spoke about the LIFE Living Rivers project (101069837-LIFE21-IPE-SK-LIFE Living Rivers), within which the Faculty of Fisheries and Water Protection of the University of South Bohemia is trying to return diverse species of sturgeon to the Danube River.

Full text of the article here.

The South Bohemian Television (Jihočeská televize) has prepared a report on new approaches to pond farming, you can watch it here.

There was an article about our faculty and the Slovak school "Spojená škola v Ivanke pri Dunaji" in the magazine "Slovenský rybár". You can read the article here(only in Slovak language).

A FFPW USB scientist Assoc. Prof. Roman Grabic, MSc., Ph.D. was invited for an interview to the "Studio 6", a program of the "Česká televize" TV channel to speak about new pollutants in water environment. You can see the interview (only in Czech) here(time 53:30).

The final state exams and defences of bachelor theses of bachelor study programmes Fishery and Protection of Waters will take place from 6^th to 8^th June 2023.

The final state exams and diploma thesis defences of the students of the follow-up master study program Fishery and Protection of Waters will take place in the following week on 13^th and 14^th June 2023.

Both examinations will take place at the ZR building in České Budějovice.

We wish all students the best of luck in their exams and defences!

The historically first certificate of the faculty school was handed over today, January 25, 2022, and was received by the Secondary Fishing School and the Secondary School of Water Management and Ecology in Vodňany. The certificate to the school director Dipl.-Ing. Karel Dubský was given by the FFPW USB Dean Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Pavel Kozák, Ph.D. with the participation of the Vice-Dean for Pedagogical Activities of the FFPW USB Assoc. prof. Dipl.-Ing. Martin Kocour, Ph.D., Mayor of the Vodňany town Milan Němeček and the Director of the Fishermen's Association of the Czech Republic RNDr. Michal Kratochvíl, Ph.D.

We are looking forward to our cooperation.

1^st TNA project within the Aquaexcel3.0 has been implemented at the FFPW USB.

The lead researcher is Prof. Maria Angeles Esteban from the University of Murcia who applied for the project called “Effects of dietary vitamin C on growth, tissue vitamin C concentration, antioxidant capacity and immune response in pikeperch juveniles”. The responsible researcher for FFPW is Aiman Imentai, Ph.D. The visiting researcher is Assoc. Prof. Francisco Guardiola who spends at the faculty this week. His aim is to check the status of the ongoing experiment, discuss further analyses and give a talk about his recent studies.

The access is free of charge, the AE3.0 project will pay for the experimental costs as well as the travel and subsistence costs.

The TNA call is continuous so you can apply for access to 40 partners´ installations at any time within the duration of the AE3.0 project. More information at project website.

After long preparations, in cooperation with the „Slevomat“ portal, we offered a new online service for sending durable fish products by a transport company directly to You. The menu currently includes freshwater fish in its own souce, smoked fish and carp pâtés.

In the course of 2023, work will be completed on other products, such as Szegedin goulash made from African catfish, carp sausage meat, expansion of the range of smoked fish and gift packaging. The production is based on cooperation with the producer of top-quality foods, the company Delius s.r.o., with the trademark "Čongrády" (https://www.congrady.eu/), which owns a license to the technology developed within the activities of FROV JU.

The products are available here.

We wish you a pleasant experience with non-traditional preparations of fish meat, which is boneless, skinless and free of all preservatives except table salt.

On 8^th March 2023, after three years, the RIFCH FFPW USB Genetic Fishery Centre staff in Vodnany was catching for subsequent weighing the broodstock of beluga (Huso huso).

Sturgeons are a very ancient group of the Chondrostei superorder that have hardly changed in more than 200 million years of their existence. Their main and distinctive features are their non-standard body shape covered with rows of scutes, a snout and a mouth on the underside of the head. Unfortunately, wild populations of these majestic fish have been declining significantly around the world for many decades. Therefore, one of the main focuses of the staff at our hatchery (GFC RIFCH FFPW USB) is to make every effort to preserve and protect the genetic resources of our native Chondrostean fish species.

The gene pool collection of acipenseriform fish, which currently numbers an impressive eleven species, is quite unique and it represents the most species-diverse sturgeon breeding in Central Europe.

The Genetic Fishery Centre of the RIFCH FFPW USB trains not only domestic and foreign Ph.D. students. It was a group of students of the 1^st year of the follow-up master’s programme of our faculty that had this fantastic opportunity during this catch. We believe that thanks to these activities we will develop a love for nature, ecology and fishery in our students and in the future, we will be able to look forward to seeing the results of their work based on the knowledge and practice gained also at our faculty.

You can see more photos on our facebook page.

Spawning fish is in full swing so our faculty took part in it, or course. A block of practice exercise was held in Vodňany on 3. 11. 2021 within the subject "Fishing in open waters", which was focused on artificial swabbing of trout (Salmo Trutta m.Fario).

As you may already know in recent times Trout survives far from the best time. The causes are many: carnivorous predators, water pollution, drought, etc. because of this, the genetic material of the original populations of trout, grayling and other species is lost. This is the most important thing from the point of view of breeding fish, because it depends on the catch of genera e.g. sea trout in open waters. One of the solutions to such a complex issue is planting the handle but they have their drawbacks which is e.g. to adapt in a new place. Last exercise, we caught several generational fish from a certain section of the Blanice river to do an artificial swabbing of the fish. 

At the beginning of the exercise, Prof. Randák told us about the issues of this topic and the basic things about the exercise. Then we start preparing for spawning fish. We took the trout out of the tank, put them in the VAT, divided the fish according to their sex, and let the females into the bathroom with an anesthetic to unify the swabbing time and accelerate maturation. We had to be careful with the generic fish, so we worked with wet hands and rags. We started from the females and put the ROE in one bowl and especially dry otherwise the quality of the Roe could deteriorate. One of the students took the fish with one hand behind his head, and the other held the tail fin. Before rubbing, it was necessary to wipe the area around the anus and the anal fin. Next were gradually pressed strokes with two fingers on the abdomen to the anus once the eggs were wiped we deposited them in a tank with a solution of potassium permanganate then the fish was discharged back into the river from where it was obtained. We had 10 eggs and we made one big bowl of eggs which we divided into 10 small bowls and that's where we put the trout sperm. The dishes had to be covered with a damp cloth to avoid contact with the sun. We had 10 eggs and we made one big bowl of eggs which we divided into 10 small bowls and that's where we put the trout sperm. The dishes had to be covered with a damp cloth to avoid contact with the sun. We pass to rubbing the milkweed.   In one bowl we put the sperm of two fish because the main goal was to ensure the maximum possible genetic variability of the offspring (polyspermatic fertilization). The procedure is no less the same but we pressed on the stomach from the side. When the Ruby has been wiped out we begin activating the Roe. We put water in each dish, it should not be higher than 1-2cm, so as not to dilute the sperm too much and reduce fertilization. We carefully stir with a plastic, rubber or wooden spatula. We leave the bowls with the eggs at rest for 2-3 min, so that the fertilization takes place completely. Then we washed with water several times and poured into one dish, stirring. Then we measured 15 random eggs and based on their diameter using bayrov's table we found the number of eggs per 1L, we came out about 10000pcs. During the lesson, all students went through the main steps of the methodology and gained basic knowledge of the methodology aimed at artificial swabbing of trout (Salmo Trutta m.Fario).

For practical exercises we thank Prof. Tomáš Randák.

Written by: Maksim Kononov

When fishermen catch fish, they often catch birds instead... that's how one could describe one of the secondary, unfortunately often overlooked, negative impacts of anglers´s leisure activities on the banks of our waterways, ponds or sand pits. This is an often unwanted, but not exactly rare phenomenon.

This is the creation of "traps" in which wild animals (most often birds) inhabiting the area around our waters are caught. Unnecessary severe injuries then occur, often ending in permanent disability or death. In the case of the Czech Republic, there are hundreds of reported cases of injured animals per year. And what are the "traps"? These are the remains of fishing lines, including rigging material (lines, cords, cables) "decorated" with various jewelry, including rubber bands, beads, feeders, hooks, lures, spinners or wobblers. Everywhere around the waters we can observe kilometers of lines and cords hanging from the branches, roots of bushes and trees and grasses, or coiled in the bushes. And how many such luxurious "traps" for wild animals are located under the water surface, no one dares to guess.

The issue of "traps" can be divided into three areas of emerging problems. The first of them arises purely from the sloppiness, laziness, or indifference of the angler. This is the issue of rigging materials such as waste thrown on the shore, in bushes, reeds, grasses or straight into the water. When birds find such traps, strangulation, necrosis, or amputations occur. As a result, we can see around our waters birds without wings, legs, fingers or with a partially or completely missing beak. Of course, if these animals do not find adequate help, they logically die, often in great pain. And even if they survive, they spend the rest of their lives as severely handicapped individuals with no chance of returning to the wild. This type of "traps" can also be eaten by animals, swallowed when consuming natural food (plants). In this case, the result is clear - death.

The second range of problems lies in the natural curiosity of animals, most often when searching for food and its intake. That's when the animals encounter fishing rods and rigs, both those actively baited and those that have been torn off or cut off, which remain here as a memento of a failed hunt. The birds then swallow the fishing lines, including the jewelry and hooks, and a serious problem arises. As a rule, everything gets stuck in the esophagus and the digestive system and surrounding soft tissues are ruptured, and the hook often peeks out of the bird's throat. If the bird does not find adequate help from a veterinarian, it will die. Even worse than the hooks are the cords and lines themselves, because they can't be seen on an X-ray and the vet doesn't know exactly what's going on. A tangle of fishing line or cord clogs the digestive system and the bird then gradually dies of hunger.

The third group of problems consists of rigs and fishing rods torn off during unsuccessful casting or catching fish, which are suspended from coastal vegetation, most often trees. Related to this is the issue of birds hanging by their wings and legs on bushes and trees around water. If these birds do not find timely help, then logically, like decorations hung on a Christmas tree, they will perish.

The issue of dangerous "traps" does not only concern "ordinary, common" waterfowl, but also highly endangered species. The most common victims of "traps" are swans, then various types of herons (grey and white heron), ducks (mallards, pochards), grebes (great crested and little grebe), as well as cormorants, gulls, coots, terns, cormorants, grebes, storks (most often white stork) or sea eagle or kingfisher. However, primarily "non-aquatic" birds such as owls, ospreys and hawks often get caught in the traps.

More information on the issue of "fishing traps" can be found in the original article intended for the angling public: Drozd, B., 2023. Fishing lines, lines and hooks around the waters: deadly "traps" for birds. Fisheries 127(3): 58–61. (in Czech only)

Photo captions:

• 01: Bird trap: so who will get caught in it? (source: author's archive)
• 02: Drooping lower jaw of the beak due to strangulation, death of the jaw muscles and dislocation of both lower jaw bones in a swan with a line wrapped around the beak. Permanent handicap. (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 03: Muscle necrosis and near-complete amputation of a black coot's leg wrapped in a fishing line. Black coot did not survive. (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 04: A baby of stork with a leg amputated by a fishing line. Permanent handicap. (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 05: Not even a gray heron deserves such a horrible death. (source: ZO ČSOP Vlašim Archive)
• 06: A swallowed fishing rig with a hook and bijouterie caused perforation of the esophagus and soft tissues in a swan. Left: X-ray image. Right: It went well. The assembly was professionally removed, the wound was sutured and disinfected. The patient survived. (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 07: A cormorant with a broken fishing rig stuck in the esophagus. (source: Archive of Helena Tomšíková)
• 08: Removal of a swallowed coil of fishing line wrapped in plant food, which blocked the digestive system (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 09: Fishing feeder and rig with a hook stuck in the leg of a swan while wading through the coastal zone of the pond. (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 10: An exhausted long-eared owl caught in a bird trap (fishing rig with line and hook) on a tree. He survived only thanks to timely rescue. (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 11: Unfortunately, the black-head gull did not survive hanging on the reeds caught into the “bird trap” (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 12: Consequence of absence at the rod. A baby swan caught while fishing for carp on a float (source: Archive DES OP Pilsen)
• 13: A very rare "catch". A little grebe caught into the “bird trap” (source: Archive DES OP Plzeň)
• 14: Critically endangered “hang man”. A 15-year-old female of sea eagle originally from Poland found her death near the Kružberk water reservoir in December 2022, when a fishing line with lead wrapped around her neck and subsequently hung herself from a tree while flying through the forest and died (source: Archive of the ZO ČSOP Nový Jičín)

Written by: RNDr. Bořek Drozd, Ph.D.

See an interesting interview (only in Czech) with the vice-dean for foreign relations and the director of the CENAKVA centre doc. Ing. Vladimír Žlábek, Ph.D. at the magazine of universities Universitas.

Naši kolegové Ján Regenda a Markéta Prokešová Dvořákova vystoupili v předvánočním čase (sobota 23. 12. 2023) v pořadu Natura na Českém rozhlase Plus. Mluvili o své práci, projektu RAGO a problematice ekologického chovu ryb v ČR. Na závěr došlo i na pozvánku na Den otevřených dveří na FROV JU 19. 1. 2024.

Pořad Natura si můžete poslechnout zde.