Around 300 groups with an estimated 6,000 anglers took part in this year’s campaign and volunteered to collect rubbish from rivers, lakes and shore areas. An estimated 15 TONNES of waste was collected – a quantity that was recovered by hand and would hardly have been removed from the waters without the efforts of the anglers.
Whether old tyres, plastic, scrap metal or other rubbish: with their passion for water and their special expertise, anglers are predestined to make “big catches” beyond fish. CCD 2025 has impressively demonstrated that they are not only interested in catching fish, but also in protecting and caring for their waters.
As in previous years, groups from Austria and Switzerland also took part in the CCD. This made the campaign day a cross-border symbol of active nature conservation – transcending national borders with the common goal of ridding our waters of rubbish.

Sonja Behr, Managing Director of the Austria fishing association (ÖKF) received support at the CATCH&CLEAN Day from Deputy Governor Stephan Pernkopf and Monika Mörth, Head of the Water Management Section at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Climate and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water Management (BMLUK)
© ÖKF
© ÖKF
Fédération Suisse de Pêche en Mer – EAA member

