Overview
- On Thursday, Lombardy officials and project partners unveiled a pilot plan for Lake Garda that uses licensed 'selection' fishers, scheduled catch days and an app that logs catch location, size and stomach contents to guide removals.
- Scientific monitoring from German research teams shows European catfish numbers and upstream range have risen sharply in recent decades, with catches at Lake Constance roughly doubling between 2020 and 2024.
- The carpione, a salmonid found only in Lake Garda, is judged especially vulnerable because catfish are large long‑lived predators that can consume small fish and compete with or eat endemic juveniles.
- Researchers say human actions such as historical stocking and catch‑and‑release angling helped spread the species and that sensational claims about attacks on people or dogs are unsupported by the fish’s anatomy and behavior.
- Authorities plan to combine selective removals, bigger‑mesh nets, diving teams and standardized data collection while scientists caution that long‑term ecosystem outcomes and whether removals will control invasives remain uncertain.