Catfish thriving in Switzerland due to climate change

Over the last 20 years, the number of catfish caught in Switzerland has increased massively. Warmer watercourses encourage these predators to reproduce. And they are getting bigger. An amateur fisherman recently pulled a 2.2-metre-long catfish weighing 86.5 kilos from the Old Rhine near Diepoldsau in the eastern canton of St Gallen, reported the Der Rheintaler newspaper. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox. Catfish over two metres long are regularly caught, particularly in Lake Constance, according to David Frei of the deputy head of the fisheries department in the canton of St. Gallen. More and more catfish hooked Anglers have been catching more and more catfish in Swiss waters over the last 20 years. The most recent figures from the Federal Office for the Environment date from 2023. At that time, 7,622 catfish were recorded in the fishing statistics, compared with just 506 in 2003. This sharp increase is thought to be linked to the increasingly high water ...