Action to be taken to stop Sussex’s plummeting eel population

The Environment Agency is consulting on a series of measures designed to stop the decline of eels in Sussex, as populations in the region are plummeting and they are now at their lowest since records began.

The Environment Agency is consulting on a series of measures designed to stop the decline of eels in Sussex, as populations in the region are plummeting and they are now at their lowest since records began.

Once common in British waters, the long-term future the traditional sea-side delicacy is bleak as the numbers of eels entering European rivers has crashed by over 95 percent in recent decades.
The decline is thought to be caused by a number of factors including fishing and changes to the habitats adult eels depend on and to the rivers they use for migrating to and from the sea. Their survival may also be affected by changes in ocean currents and temperatures which may be linked to climate change

In an effort to stop the complete disappearance of eels in English waters the Environment Agency is considering introducing tighter restrictions on fishing for mature eels and young ones, known as elvers. The new proposals include:
• banning trawling for eel and elver
• introducing elver and adult eel close fishing seasons
• stopping the expansion of adult eel fisheries
• prohibiting net fishing at locations where elvers are particularly vulnerable;
• specifying what fishing equipment and methods can be used to catch elvers;

The proposals are part of a host of measures to reverse the eels decline. Locally, the Environment Agency works to make migration through rivers and wetlands easier by installing fish passes, they have also been going on patrols to stop poachers and improving availability of good quality habitat for eels.

Fisheries Technical Specialist for Environment Agency, Charles Bacchus, said: “Given the critical state of our eel stocks we want as many anglers, net fishers and others with an interest in eel fishing and conservation to share their views with us.

“Young eels used to hatch at sea and swim up English rivers in huge shoals so dense they could turn the riverside margins black. However, if eel population numbers don’t improve soon we could reach a critical point of no return, and could face the end of this species in our waters and possibly extinction.”

Anyone can take part in this consultation which runs for 12 weeks, closing on 7 September 2009.Details of these proposals are available from the consultation section at www.environment-agency.gov.uk

• Eels have a long-range lifecycle. They spawn in the ocean and their transparent larvae drift on ocean currents until they reach the continental shelf. As they approach the coast, they grow and take on a darker colour. Now called elvers, they enter estuaries and migrate upstream to grown and mature in rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands as yellow eels. They can remain in freshwater for over 20 (and up to 40) years, before migrating downstream, taking on a silver appearance, to the sea. The mature adults are thought to migrate back to the mid-Atlantic to spawn. Truly one of nature’s great migrants.

• Eel are important to the diet of several other rare and protected species, such as otters and bittern.

• Eels are listed as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/109390.aspx?lang=_e