Monitoring and National Inventory of Aquatic Genetic Resources
In Germany the Johann Heinrich von Thuenen-Institut (vTI) is in charge of the biological supervision of the utilised sea fish stocks , the variations of their size, the seasonal changes of location with regard to fishing use, and the change of environmental conditions.
The EU Water Framework Directive commits the Federal States to set up a quality indicator for waters that is based on the composition of species communities and the frequency of species. By this, the foundations for a targeted monitoring in inland waters were laid in 2006. In irregular intervals, the combination and frequency of species is also recorded in fish registries of the Federal States.
There is no monitoring of stocks in aquaculture. Brood fish stocks of cyprinidae, salmonidae and accompanying fish used in aquaculture have been recorded.
National Inventory
The AGRDEU database on aquatic genetic resources in Germany, run by the Information and Coordination Centre for Biological Diversity, contains the aquatic genetic resources present in Germany and shows their status of endangerment, use and conservation. It comprises the areas of sea, freshwater and aquaculture.
Based on data of the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE), the "sea" part indicates utilised fish, crustaceans and mussels from Germany's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The "freshwater" section includes teleost fish, cyclostomes, crustaceans and mussels in limnic waters. The basis for this are the fish registries of the Federal States and the Red List of endangered vertebrates in Germany, drawn up by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). "Aquaculture" describes a first documentation of the brood fish stocks from trout and carp pond industries as well as their accompanying fish on the basis of a project supported by the BMELV.