Hundreds of millions of young eels carried over 3,500 miles every year on Atlantic currents to Europe then flown 5,400 miles further on to China, are at the heart of an illegal French export trade, an eminent British eel expert has said.
Andrew Kerr, chairman of European Sustainable Eel Group, said trawlers are waiting to scoop up the three-inch-long elvers, as they seek to swim into the Adour, Gironde, Loire and other rivers to spend the next 10 years growing into adult eels.
"In China and Asia, eels are a delicacy on a par with shark fins, and enormous sums are paid for the pleasure of eating them," he told experts in eel conservation from 12 EU countries at an Institute of Fisheries Management (IFI) symposium in Peterborough.
At this time of year they are starting to reach the French coast on the Bay of Biscay at the end of a two-year journey floating over from their breeding grounds in the Sargasso Sea south of Bermuda.
“The illegal trade is thriving because the annual French quota for the tiny eels was set twice as high as the 30 tons the EU market needed. The 2015/2016 quota was 57 tons.”
Extinction
According to Kerr, eels remained one level nearer extinction than tigers, pandas and snow leopards. The fish illegally traded with China go to fish farms to grow for human consumption but never breed.
“If they remained in Europe we would have another 100 million eels each year for release into our waterways which would help boost the recovery programme. Since the 1990s the numbers of elvers surviving in Europe had fallen by 90 per cent.”
French police were making great efforts, Kerr added, and finding it “very difficult” to identify and prosecute organisations and individuals engaged in the trade with China.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Minister for Natural Resources, Joe McHugh, has announced a new research initiative involving IFI scientists and some former eel fishermen to develop national knowledge of the species and its potential for recovery.
Based on advice from the Scientific Committee for Eels, the existing conservation measures, in Ireland’s Eel Management Plan agreed by the EU under EC Regulation 1100/2007, will remain in place up to mid-2018.
“I am anxious that a scientific initiative involving some stakeholders is undertaken to increase knowledge and I have secured funding to start research in 2016. This would facilitate the prospects for a return to commercial fishing activity,” the minister said.
Measures currently in place under Ireland’s eel management plan principally involve a cessation of the commercial eel fishery and closure of the market and mitigation of the impact of hydropower installations.
The latest advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas for 2016 is that “the status of eel remains critical and that all anthropogenic mortality (eg recreational and commercial fishing, hydropower, pumping stations and pollution) affecting production and escapement of silver eels should be reduced to, or kept as close to zero, as possible.”
Closing down
Due to a reoccurrence of a serious medical condition, Ian Powell of Blackwater Lodge and Fishery, Ballyduff, Co Waterford, has reluctantly decided to close the business down completely.
“Little did I realise on October 1st that it would be for the last time. At that stage I was already making plans for the 2016 season. I will be starting treatment immediately but may also require surgery at some stage. In recent years, running the lodge has required a very much ‘hands-on’ approach and with the impending treatment regime I cannot commit to continuing in this way,” he said.
Blackwater Lodge Guesthouse, self-catering bungalows and freehold fishing rights will be put on the market for sale as a whole or in lots. Please contact him if you are interested on info@ireland-salmon-fishing.net or +353 58 60235/+353 87 235 2120.
