Good news from Romania! This year the first wild Beluga YOY was caught in Galati (Danube, km 145) on June 23 (TL-14.5 cm, W-17 grams-picture 1-fishermen Lucian Lupu). Probably at the beginning of July it reached a peak of downstream migration of beluga YOY. On June 30, 6 specimens with sizes between 14 and 18.5 cm were captured (video). At the beginning of July, up to 35 specimens were caught in a one fishing operation, which is an extremely good sign. According to my calculation it arrived on time because this year it was colder and the Danube warmed slowly: last year 9 ⁰C was on 22 March and this year 9 ⁰C was on 5 April in 2021, last year Danube reached 20 ⁰C on 6 June, this year on June 20 and last year the wild Beluga firs caught in the Danube was on June 16.
Also on June 28, the first Stellatus YOY (Tl-16 cm and 19 grams) was caught in the same place .
I have also information from angler(Adrian Zlatan) that they captured 17 06 2021 a pikeperch that had three sturgeons in its stomach. The place of capture was 50 km upstream of PF1, two above are almost certainly Sterlet (the pictures are unclear there is a possibility that they are also hybrids) and the one below may be Russian but again the picture is quite blurry (pictures 2 and 3). In the same scenario wit sturgeon predators last year on the Chilia Arm an angler (Ilia Ivanov) captured, in August, a catfish that had a Stellate YOY in its stomach (picture 4 )
