Burbots spawn at the most inhospitable time of the year, by the end of December until the middle of January, in trenches and tributaries of middle and lower reaches of larger rivers. This fish, which is related to codfish, is a night-active predator, which manly subsists on fish. In many large rivers, such as Elbe, there were often two different populations of burbot: the migratory burbots moved as young fish to the tide areas of rivers, where they grew faster due to the large fish abundance in these waters, reaching considerable lengths up to 60 cm. Also another population of rather small fish could often be found, migrating only on local level.

Construction of hydraulic barriers has caused massive extinction of migratory burbots, which means that the number of individuals has strongly declined. "This extraordinary fish, which was often caught in Werra in previous times, has become rare", so wrote Popper since over hundred years ago, confirming other historical data stemming from this area. Today there are only remainders, whereby there is no clarity about their origin, if it is natural or stemmed. The interconnection between habitats is a crucial prerequisite necessary in order to allow for the development of solid burbot populations and repopulation with animals from other areas of Weser system, e.g. upper and middle Weser. Burbot was the fish of the year 2002.

Foto: Schwevers (2002)