The Wadden Sea is the largest tidal flats system in the world, where nature is allowed to develop largely undisturbed. The UNESCO World Heritage property extends along the coasts of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. In the ONE Wadden Sea ecosystem more than 100 marine and anadromous fish species find rich food supply, important habitats and other preconditions to completing their diverse life cycles. Yet, populations of many fish species in the Wadden Sea have declined in recent decades. Swimway Wadden Sea is an overarching approach for a wide variety of initiatives aiming at achieving trilateral fish targets. These have been formulated with the aim to maintain or improve healthy fish populations in the Wadden Sea. (Wadden Sea Plan).

The first trilateral Swimway conference on “Understanding connectivity within the life cycles of coastal fish” was held in September 2019 in Hamburg, Germany.

In the meantime, existing monitoring data has been extensively analysed, and much relevant and excellent research on the topic has been finalized, whose results have the potential to facilitate effective and efficient conservation of fish life cycles in the Wadden Sea and beyond. The crucial task, however, is to translate this scientific knowledge into tangible management action, leading to measurable improvement for fish. Important steps have been initiated e. g. the fish migration river in the Netherlands. Yet the diversity of life styles, life history stages, and, thus, of the requirements of fish to their environment, remains a major challenge to implement the Trilateral Fish Targets for the Wadden Sea.