Occurrence of paddlefish Polyodon spathula (Walbaum, 1792) in the Serbian part of the lower River Danube

Abstract

Paddlefish Polyodon spathula was recently found in the lower River Danube of Serbia. Its introduction in the Danube is most likely to result from fish escaping from Romanian or Bulgarian rearing facilities where it was introduced in the 1990's. It now occurs as far up as the Iron Gate II (863 - 862 km from the Black Sea) and appears to have acclimatised to the lower River Danube. © 2006 The Author(s).