While in Latvia, FISH and Race for the Baltic among others took part in in a river clean up as well as participated at the Positivus music festival where staff from FISH and CCB, core NGOs behind Race for the Baltic, had the opportunity to talk to Toomas Hendrik Ilve President of Estonia about the campaign.
In Salacgrivas the team meet up with senior expert Andris Urtans from the Latvian Nature Conservation Agency at the river Salaca, who told the team about the initiative “Place a stone in a stream”. Place a stone in a stream is a voluntary public monitoring system which through involvement of volunteers and maintainers work to prevent biological and physical river deterioration in the Salaca river. The River Salaca is defined as the 4th most productive wild salmon spawning river in the Baltic area. Nutrient leakage from the catchment and increased sediment load, lead to oxygen depletion and decrease the rivers’ biological quality.
The RFTB team volunteered one afternoon for the Place a stone in a stream initiative by cutting down overgrowth of reeds in the river, as a mean of helping Salmon to reach their spawning grounds. The reeds are a natural part of the river system but when exceeding in quantity, as a result of increased phosphorous and nitrates runoff from land based activities, they may prevent Salmon from reaching their spawning grounds. In total the team helped clean up approximate 50m2 of reefs.
While in Latvia the campaign also stopped by Positivus music festival and hosted an event and had the opportunity to talk to a vast number of people about the state of the Baltic Sea. Representatives from FISH and CCB furthermore had the chance to talk to Toomas Hendrik Ilve, President of Estonia, about the campaign and Estonia’s role for a healthier Baltic Sea.