Assessing the economic costs of the monitoring campaigns from 2011 till 2019 that study the lower Danube’s sturgeon species using ultrasonic telemetry

The sturgeon species are a flagship species of the Danube River Basin that acts like an indicator of ecological health. They are protected by several international conventions (CITES, Habitats Directive, the Bern Convention and the Bonn Convention) and are assessed as endangered by the IUCN. Starting from 2011 the National Institute for Research and Development in Environmental Protection (INCDPM) Bucharest has carried monitoring of the Lower Danube River`s sturgeon species using acoustic telemetry to quantify the pressures they face, their migration routes and behavior. The Institute employed local fisherman for scientific fishing practices and deployed its specialists for the in situ tagging procedures. As poaching is a constant threat to the sturgeon's wellbeing, the price offered per kilo of catch has steadily increased over time in order to highlight scientific fishing as a viable alternative. All the specimens that were captured were safely released back into the wild following a well-defined protocol that minimized stress during procedures. The distribution by species was as follows: 49.65% Stellate sturgeons, 28.18% Beluga sturgeons, 19.17% Sterlet sturgeons and 3 % Russian sturgeons. Analyzing the financial data has estimated a total investment required for the current monitoring programme comprised of 123.000 EUR for the catch rewards and 328.000 EUR as equipment costs. Further estimates are needed to quantify the cost of human effort, field work and maintenance of the monitoring network. We can safely estimate that these costs would add up to more than 1.000.000 EUR. At present, INCDPM is continuing the monitoring effort resulting in a unique database that can inform the decision makers of the actual conservation state of the sturgeon species so that the appropriate conservation measures can be taken.