It would seem that the Seine is a happy place, with new summer bathers and old residents returning to the river! Over-polluted, the Parisian river has long lost some of its fauna, but now that the water is cleaner, some fish are returning to its bosom! This is particularly true of the sculpin, a historic little fish that disappeared from its waters in the 1970s.
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This is very good news, as the species was classified as vulnerable at European level, and can only survive in water of good quality. According to AFP, hydrobiologist Franck Renard and his team carried out an annual fish census of the Seine at the end of July, at the request of the Siaap, the wastewater treatment authority for the Paris conurbation.
Pike are also back, as are many other species, numbering between 35 and 40, twice as many as 30 years ago, when only three species lived in the river. But some species could have stayed away, like the goby, an invasive exotic species that harms other species and could even make the original inhabitants disappear in the long term.
As for climate change, it is also likely to affect plants in the Seine and lower oxygen levels in the water, killing off the most fragile fish.
