River Tisza

River Tisza bursted into blossom

River Tisza “bursted into blossom” on Friday and Saturday near Szolnok, and on Monday near Nagykörü as well, reports eletforma.hu. The Palingenia longicauda (or, in other terms, the Tisza mayfly) is the biggest specimen of the mayflies. In Hungarian, they are called “tiszavirág”, literally meaning Tisza-flower, thus, this period is usually referred to as when “the River Tisza bursts into blossom”. Nowadays, in the XXI. century, they can only be found in the Tisza and some of its tributaries. Their conservation value is around 32 EUR per specimen.

Tisza mayfly is a 8-12 centimetre long, colourful insect belonging to the order of mayflies (Ephemeroptera). Its wing-span can reach 6-7 centimetre. They lay their egg on the water‘s surface, then they sink down to the bottom of the river and drill themselves into the ground there. The larvae live primarily under river rocks and drill themselves in between rich vegetation and the sediment. The fully developed animal is widely known to only live for a short time. Their small head has short feelers, big complex eyes and three eyespots. Their mouth organ is vestigial. The sexually matured animals do not eat during their short life on the surface. They pump their digestive tract up with air so that they could fly easier. The fully developed mayflies cannot fly well, they are only flitting.

Tisza mayflies swarming on River Tisza
Source: MTI

A larva sheds 20-30 times a year on in a few months time, depending on what species it belongs to. The last shedding happens almost in its adult age. They can usually be observed during their swarming in the spring or early summer, when they are doing their courtship dance. The swarming of mayflies starts in the evening and lasts about three hours. As the overtue of the courtship dance, the three-year-old larvae living in the loam soil of the bank start to rise to the water’s surface. The gas piling up under their integument helps them getting up to the surface. The larva becomes a winged insect on the surface. First, the male subimagos appear, which fly to the bank and transform into imagos, able to mate there.

During the shedding, the animal is flightless, thus it is totally at the mercy of insectivorous birds. Mates transformed into imagos with long cercuses looking for the females fly right above the water.

Tisza mayflies on the water’s surface
Source: MTI

Females are able to mate right after leaving their larva-selves behind. After the mating, the female starts its compensatory flight above the river. It flies up-stream, 5-10 metres above the river. Then, further away it descends to the surface where it lays its eggs. The eggs sink down to the bottom of the river, then the larvae already hatched out drill themselves into the ground and live in those open grooves for three years. One colony like that can contain specimen from 10,000 to 100,000.

Once, these species were wide-spread all around Europe, but it has already disappeared from most parts of the continent. They live in a great number in Hungary in River Tisza and some of its tributaries.

Featured image: MTI

Ce: bm

June 20, 2017

Fish soup of the Tisza region and Egri Bikavér to become Hungarikums

Moreover, the Kodály method and the Hungarian sheepdog and hunting dog species also became Hungarikums, szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu reports.

The possibility of the Szeged fish soup to become Hungarikum was mentioned in our former article in January, where our expert interviewee said that the Hungarikum title, which is proudly bore by their brother Baja, could be gained rather by a wider interpretation, by the Tisza region varieties.

Well, it happened: on the 21st of March the Hungarikum Committee made Hungarikum of the fish soup of the Tisza region. Furthermore, the Egri Bikavér, the Kodály method and the Hungarian sheepdog and hunting dog species also became Hungarikums.

According to MTI, on the press conference held in the Castle of Eger with the presence of oenologists the announcement by Sándor Fazekas that the worldwide known red wine, the Egri Bikavér became a Hungarikum was received by applause.

Men clink with Egri Bikavér after the decision of the Hungarikum Committee in the Castle of Eger. Photo: Péter Komka (MTI)

At the event in March Imre Ujvári, the mayor of Tiszafüred, said he was proud that the fish soup of the Tisza region became a member of the Collection of Hungarikums by the initiative of Tiszafüred.

The collective term “fish soup of the Tisza region” can refer to the Szeged, the Szolnok, or the so-called Tisza vinous varieties.

The recipes of the Tisza region are more complicated than the recipes of Baja: while in the latter one fish are not sieved, but simply stewed with onion and the soup is made strictly from carp, in the Tisza region first a broth is made from onion, paprika and fish offal, then it is sieved, and the fish steaks cut earlier are prepared in it. This soup lacks noodles, while the Baja fish soup is prepared with pasta called “gyufatészta”.

Fish soup of the Tisza region is prepared on the event organized on occasion of the fish soup becoming a Hungarikum in Tiszaörvény, part of Tiszafüred on 7th April, 2017. Photo: Zsolt Czeglédi (MTI)

The Kodály method is a concept of music-teaching which covers the methods of Zoltán Kodály. His ideas are based on the Hungarian culture, and are in connection with other theories of his time, but can be applied in other environments as well by the usage of the folk-songs of the local culture. The ethnomusicologist, collector of folk-songs, composer, pedagogue and cultural politician Kodály was mainly hurrying some changes in cultural politics in his writings and speeches. With his statement “Music is for everyone” he demanded music to be part of the elementary education. His methods are the ones that also became Hungarikum.

In addition to what was mentioned above, you can be also happy, if you own a pedigree sheepdog or a hunting dog, as the dachshund and the vizsla also became Hungarikums.

translated by Kinga Fegyó

Photo: MTI

April 15, 2017

Body of migrant who tried to swim to Hungary found in Tisza river

Budapest (MTI) – Police on Friday found the body of a migrant who earlier this week attempted to cross into Hungary by swimming up a dead branch of the Tisza river.

Police patrolling the section of the Tisza on the Hungarian-Serbian border noticed on Wednesday two migrants swimming up one of the river’s dead branches, a spokesman for the Csongrád county police department said.

The migrants quickly turned back when they became aware of the police presence. Police only saw one of them reach the Vojvodina shore and immediately alerted Serbian authorities of the missing migrant who then started searching for him.

Photo: MTI

June 4, 2016

3rd PET Cup on Tisza River from 17th to 25th of July

The third PET Cup, a hazardous waste collecting initiative, will be organised from 17th to 25th of July on the Tisza River.

This year, a fleet consisting of 20 boats will try to collect as much plastic bottles from the river as possible. The aim of the PET Cup is to raise attention to the increasing problem of contamination of Tisza River.

The source of the pollution is the great annual plastic bottle flood which brings tons of domestic garbage – mainly PET bottles and plastic bags – from upstream regions in Ukraine and Romania.

Each spring, the pollution wave sweeps across the river and finally deposited in the floodplain forests along the shoreline of Slovakia and Hungary.

The empty PET bottles are discarded by consumers after use and become hazardous waste. In the recycling industry, this is referred to as “post-consumer PET.” Many local governments and waste collection agencies have started to organise post-consumer PET collecting campaigns, and the organisers of PET Cups also try to encourage people to come together and collect the hazardous waste from the river so that they could recycle them.

Each year, the PET Cup starts with a joint bottle and plastic collecting action. It then continues with a boat-building competition where PET boats are built from the garbage collected. Finally, it ends in a long-distance boat-race on the river.

Both the first and the second PET Cup were great success. In each occasion, the PET “pirates” covered more than 100 kilometres and collected nearly 10.000 bottles from the river. At the end of the boat-race, the winner was given the “prestigious” PET Cup trophy made of garbage collected from the river. Boats were then recycled, just as the loads of plastic collected during the race.

In 2015, the event organisers want to collect even more PET bottles than in the two previous years.

written by Gábor Hajnal

Photo: MTI

July 7, 2015

Serbian policemen caught out on directing refugees towards Tisza floodplain – Photographic evidence

The journalists of délmagyar.hu have caught out three Serbian policemen as they were directing refugees to the Tisza floodplain, hvg.hu reported.

The Hungarian journalists were originally waiting for a bus carrying refugees in Magyarkanizsa, Serbia, but, according to the article of délmagyar.hu, the bus did not stop in the city.

The journalists decided to follow the bus, which eventually stopped next to a floodplain of Tisza River, three kilometres far from its supposed destination. Here, three policemen got off the bus and directed the refugees towards the floodplain. The three policemen then got on the bus again, and headed back to Magyarkanizsa.

After the bus drove away, the journalists spoke with the refugees, who said they had no idea why they had been released right there. The policemen ordered them to walk along the river to reach their original destination, they said.

based on the article of hvg.hu
translated by Gábor Hajnal

Photos have been made on the case by délmagyar.hu

July 1, 2015

Crazy PET CUP: Instead of Fishes, Empty Bottles Are Being Caught in Tisza

Index also participated in the craziest action of our country, PET Cup, sokszinuvidek.hu says.

Four amazing looking boat made of plastic bottles started the tour. According to Index, two of their colleagues, István Huszti and Balázs Horváth travelled to Gergelyiurgonya, in order to build their first catamaran of plastic bottles to win the II. PET Cup. The winner is who can arrive to Cigánd 100 km away and collect the most plastic bottles from Tisza.

According to sokszinuvidek.hu, PET Cup was launched by Attila Molnár and Zsolt marcell Tóth last year, after they saw that during one of their filming thousand of dirty PET bottles were coming with the river and they did not want to leave that. Four boats started the tour, including a raft similar to a big stage with a barbecue and a parazol, a two-boarded kielboat with a tent, a party boat made of bread boxes and decorated with trash cans and a catamaran floating on potato bags.

Index qualified with a catamaran called Petanic, which is 4 meters long, containing 500 PET bottles and a rudder, decorated with a soccer net and a parazol. They hope that they could transport 8 people to the destination. Not just the two people, but other members of the editorial office are also traveling on the boat. The results are expected in 24th August, sokszinuvidek.hu says.

based on the articles of Index.hu and sokszinuvidek.hu
by Becsi

More pictures and stories: https://www.facebook.com/petkupa

August 23, 2014