Natural re‐establishment of Atlantic salmon reproduction and the fish community in the previously heavily polluted River Purtse, Baltic Sea

Abstract

Abstract – The River Purtse was historically a significant Atlantic salmon spawning river in the Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea). After the establishment of oil shale mining and processing in the catchment area in the late 1920s, the salmon population went extinct. By the 1970s, the river was heavily polluted and the lower reaches lacked any fish fauna. However, since the 1990s, pollution from oil shale mines was greatly reduced and water quality started to improve. The first fish species to repopulate the polluted area were gudgeon and nine‐spined stickleback. The first salmon parr from wild spawning were recorded in 2006. Up to 2009, a total of fifteen fish species have been recorded including trout and the sensitive bullhead. This study illustrates the natural recovery of the fish fauna following water quality improvement.