Free movement for fishy migrants within Europe is being blocked by France, as salmon trying to get back to Switzerland find themselves stopped near the border by French power plants.
Basel-born salmon migrate down the River Rhine and then try to swim back upstream to spawn – more or less where they hatched. However, owing to the lack of fish ladders on the Upper Rhine they can’t get past three hydroelectric stations in Strasbourg on the French-German border.
The Swiss government said in response to a parliamentary question on Thursday it would continue to work to remove the obstacles.
Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland have built fish passes around all their power plants to help migrating fish swim upstream, but it is still impossible to cross three French power plants, said parliamentarian Roberto Zanetti.
Switzerland had proposed “several innovative proposals” to France, the government said, and intended to work towards a concrete timetable within the framework of the new Rhine 2040External link programme for the missing ladders to be installed quickly.
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The river has now been cleaned up and spawning grounds have been created for salmon. Most Rhine bordering countries, apart from France, have built fish passes around all their power plants to help migrating fish to swim upstream. The French are now coming under heavy pressure to comply.
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