The anchovy returns to the Wadden Sea

When the traditional spawning grounds of anchovy in the former Zuiderzee disappeared as a consequence of the construction of a dam in 1932, a directed fishery for anchovies continued in the adjacent part of the Wadden Sea until 1962. Subsequently, there has been no commercial fishery and anchovies have only been caught incidentally in the area. In recent years, the stock shows signs of recovery. Spawning-stock biomass was estimated at around 100 t in 1994. It is argued that the decline and recovery of this stock signify long-term changes of the Wadden Sea ecosystem under the influence of variations in eutrophication. Phosphate loads of the river Rhine increased between 1955 and the early 1980s, but have decreased sharply since then. (C) 1996 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea