Eels Face Extinction

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Angela Hort

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I live near a small ornamental boating lake in Barry S.Wales. No longer used for baoating it now attracts large (for its size) numbers of swans, geese and mallards. I have observed large numbers of eels in the lake during previous spring times but none recently. I believe the lake to be topped up by a freshwater spring arising elsewhere and I supposed this could be the route the eels followed. Overflow from the lake was dealt with by a sewer pipe leading to the nearby harbour. This sewer pipe was destroyed when an adjoining open air swimming pool was demolished. What are the chances of eels migrating by this route in the future? The Bristol channel is famed for its elver population at certain times of the year. This ecological vandalism was perpetrated by the localcouncil who were either ignorant of the annual migration of eels, did not bother with adequate research or chose to ignore it. Are we likely to see a return of the eels and might they make therir way overland to the lake?
 
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The Monk

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I`m not so sure eels actually move overland as much as people make out Angela, the European Eel has however been in decline for a number of years, groups like the European Eel Anglers Association, National Anguilla Club and Eel Conservation Society (under the auspices of the SAA)have been doing much to help turn this round. Councils are financially orientated of course, any potential ecological disaster usually takes a much lower place in the scene of things. I know the Barry area reasonably well and I`m sorry to hear about this issue.
 
pcpaulh

pcpaulh

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Just read in the Telegraph today that eels have been approved a protected species now?! Well I think thats what Dad was saying.
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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Nick.....i'm convinced they can, if they wish move over land under certain conditions...not over vast distances but i certainly think it is a capability of theirs.

Hours of sitting on the Severn and actually seeing elvers out of the water climbing the concrete sections of wiers makes me think that way.

But i'm sorry Angela, i do not believe they will use that mode of travel as a "eel motorway"........you may well not see them again.

Christian......could you search out more about that?
 
pcpaulh

pcpaulh

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"The decision to list eels as endangered was made in The Hague last week. Meanwhile, at a meeting in Brussels, the European Union agreed to implement plans that will require 40 per cent of adult eels to be allowed to return to the Sargasso Sea to breed and for up to 60 per cent of baby eels caught to be retained for restocking."

I think this might be the only really relevent bit.
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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Not Eelburger i hope young en? ;)

Thanks for the link Christian....makes good reading.....the commercial farming ( i refuse to call it fishing) of elvers needs to be stopped now, the number of eel in the rivers in the Wye and Severn catcment area is now severerly reduced when compared against 20yrs ago.

I'm convinced the years of elver farming is now starting to show it's effects.

I hope the powers that be realise that rod and line anglers could never..in a million years...have made any impression on eel stocks even if every one had been taken for the table.....the farming is 100% to blame.
 
pcpaulh

pcpaulh

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If things really are as bad as they sound might be a case of two little too late. Especially if its only england who take any notice of the new resrictions.
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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"up to 60% of baby eels caught to be retained for restocking"

Thats bollocks, no ???'s in that!....and i'm not convinced they will survive......they live on a million year old instinct, they know where they are going, they don't want man to put them somewhere!

I don't think it's to late Christian....but it needs elver farming to be forgotten.
 
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MarkTheSpark

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Because of a decline of the natural supply of elvers, the co-operative imports about two million a year from the River Severn in England. Peter Wood, from UK Glass Eels, which provides baby eels from the Severn, said: "This will do a huge amount of damage to the farming industry and the publicity will put the public off buying eels. The politicians and environmentalists have hijacked the issue.

Hijacked the issue? The issue of there being only 1% of the eels we had 30 years ago? How can you hijack that issue? They just want to try to get some eels back to the UK.

Isn't there a nasty little parasite that attacks eels? Apparently came in with eels imported live from the Far East. If they cut back the UK fishery what's going to happen; oh yes, they'll import more diseased eels from the Far East. Do you know we import chicken from China? The world's gone mad.
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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Mark,
Is the parasite from the far east a fact?......i was under the impression OUR eel demanded high prices in the far east, but i may be wrong, i just don't have the time to delve to deep.

My own experiences are based on my own and friends experience of fishing the Wye and Severn catment for many years.
 
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alan

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to little to late.

its says about putting measures in place by the end of 2008. that will change, just like it did with the bass, the cod, the sharks, the tope, etc.

i think there is a report somewhere saying that there is not enough eels to recover from the situation now. i will try to find it.
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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We sit on our laurels and things pass us by.....eel played a massive part in my own early fishing life and hold a special place now......perhaps as anglers we should make more noise?

An individual fish of a particular species dies and the angling world weeps and it makes headlines....we are in danger of making (by we i do not mean rod and line anglers) a species extinct and nothing!!!!!!
 
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Andy "the Dog" Nellist (SAA) (ACA)

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Although Eels have not been recorded travelling over dry land they have been recorded travelling up to 43km through underground, and often very small, waterways.

Apart from parasites I'm sure a signigficant part of the problem is abstraction and building interfering with natural underground migration routes.

Whiklst some places still have Eels in abundance they have disappeared from some areas Sywell and the Tring Reservoirs being classic examples.
 
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yoggy

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Here in the Fens some drains I fish Eels are still quite prolific.

In fact one drain comes to mind where Eels are considered a nuisance!.
 
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Warren 'Hatrick' (Wol) Gaunt

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Strange goings on at moment isnt there. What with weather change this that and the other, things are all over the place. Some places are becoming deviod of Eels where as other seem to be on the up. Abstract problems chaging their course????
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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I'm sure you are right Andy and Wol, abstraction must change their routes and it could explain some of the disapearing acts?

But rivers like the Lugg and Teme have far fewer eel than 20years ago and i would have thought that they would have been major highways?

I'm convinced that farming of Elvers is hitting home now.
 
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Chevin

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I am sure that I heard Fred J telling a story many years ago of someone who actually put baited hooks on a piece of land near a river and caught eels at certain times of the year. I will try to remember to ask him next time I talk to him. It could be something he had only heard or something of which he had a little more information.
 
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Andy "the Dog" Nellist (SAA) (ACA)

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Paul, if they can't get get to/from many of the areas where they used to mature then you would expect the numbers in the rivers to be lower.

The nearest river to Tring is the Bulborne which these days often has no water at all for much of the year.
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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Andy....i think that the Wye/Severn catchment area is suffering because of the elver farming and water table reductions....bloody sad.
 
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