The European Eel - A species under threat

[Steve Coppolo]

Us "eel club boys" have better things to do, and as you pointed out, you know it all anyway I will continue to read your posts, however, if only to marvel at your ability to criticise everything, and offer nothing by way of a constuctive solution.

 

Is this constructive? Thanks to people like you and the 'eel club boys', I can no longer catch a few eels to eat, but I can buy as many as I like. Fresh from Billingsgate this morning.

 

 

I bet you and your lot must feel very proud of yourselves. By getting anglers banned from eating the few eels they catch, you've achieved.................absolutely nothing. How very constructive of you. You have nothing better to do than poke your noses into other peoples' business and get them stopped from doing things they've always done - and for what?

 

 

You campaign to get anglers banned from taking eels, then you come onto an angling forum preaching to us and telling us how we shouldn't eat eels or use them as bait. Just so YOU can continue to stick hooks into them and drag them out of the water for a photo so you can show off to your eel catching mates at the eel club. Who the bloody hell do you people think you are?

 

 

You, and people like you, who think nothing of spoiling things for others for no reason other than to satisfy your over inflated egos, make me sick. I hope the photos give you nightmares.

 

 

 

Edited to tone down last paragraph.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Steve Coppolo

[Mark7]

Is this constructive? Thanks to people like you and the 'eel club boys', I can no longer catch a few eels to eat, but I can buy as many as I like. Fresh from Billingsgate this morning.

 

 

I bet you and your lot must feel very proud of yourselves. By getting anglers banned from eating the few eels they catch, you've achieved.................absolutely nothing. How very constructive of you. You have nothing better to do than poke your noses into other peoples' business and get them stopped from doing things they've always done - and for what?

 

 

You campaign to get anglers banned from taking eels, then you come onto an angling forum preaching to us and telling us how we shouldn't eat eels or use them as bait. Just so YOU can continue to stick hooks into them and drag them out of the water for a photo so you can show off to your eel catching mates at the eel club. Who the bloody hell do you people think you are?

 

 

 

 

You, and people like you, who think nothing of spoiling things for others for no reason other than to satisfy your over inflated egos, make me sick. I hope the photos give you nightmares.

 

 

 

Edited to tone down last paragraph.

 

We stand, heads bowed, dispirited, in the face of such mature, intelligent and articulate comment. The sight of a tub of jellied eels has sent us running for cover. I hope that Santa brings you Lego for Xmas Steve, so that your mind remains occupied

 

Merry Xmas to all thinking anglers!

[Steve Coppolo]

So you should stand with your head bowed. In shame.

 

Merry Xmas to all thinking anglers!

 

Which you clearly are not, you sad case, because you still fail to recognise that your pathetic efforts in getting anglers banned from taking eels has made no difference to anything. Like I said, I might not be able to catch my own to eat any more, but I can buy as many as I like. You've achieved nothing except damage to angling. Well done.

Edited December 24, 2009 by Steve Coppolo

[Jaffa]

We stand, heads bowed, dispirited, in the face of such mature, intelligent and articulate comment. The sight of a tub of jellied eels has sent us running for cover. I hope that Santa brings you Lego for Xmas Steve, so that your mind remains occupied

 

Merry Xmas to all thinking anglers!

 

Dunno damn all about the situation with eels but put me in the "non thinking" box ifs that the best reply you to what seems an obvious question.

 

Have a good christmas yourself

[Elton]

I'm seriously concerned that eels are now included in the same sentence as shad. I've always understood that you are not allowed to target shad. I suspect eels will be next.

[Dick Dastardly]

I'm seriously concerned that eels are now included in the same sentence as shad. I've always understood that you are not allowed to target shad. I suspect eels will be next.

 

And its making all anglers aware of issues such as this that I feel Mark and crew would have been better of doing rather than the tired old "us anglers shouldn't eat/use for bait" argument.

 

It was mentioned how negative I am,well I'm afraid over the years Ive seen the approach and attitude (as seemingly shown here) many times and Ive just sat back but felt sad that people (such as you Mark) who have the passion and time to try and change/improve something that's important just spunk the chance by going about it the wrong way or targeting the wrong issues.

 

Despite your "anti Budgie" stance (brought on by the fact that I don't agree with the way you are doing things and have actually said and given reasons why for) Ive still not resorted to the "holier than thou" "thinking angler","Know it all" type of discourse. Cant you see how by doing such you've even alienated several on here who are both extremely knowledgeable in both conservation.political and fishery management areas?

 

As I keep saying maybe a bit of time spent "lurking" on the site before diving in would have made you privy to this thus enabling you to make a more measured first post on the subject?

 

Incidentally I wonder (be honest now) how many other web sites you did this on with a simple "cut and paste" of the originally worded post?

 

By the way my comments about "the eel boys" not posting was meant more in regards to the site in general rather than just this forum. At present there is a "Big eel" topic running that surely you could have found the time to post to even a simple "well done! type comment?

 

Lastly Mark I don't want to make an enemy of you or the NAC or it to look like any of the contributors to this thread have either.Neither do I or anyone else here want to see the decline of the freshwater eel or lose the option to fish for them in a recreational way.BUT because of that we are not just going to roll over and blindly follow/agree with a line of approach that we after a lot of thought and research don't believe will help the situation let alone one (ie the no eat/no bait) one that will not only not help the issue but will undoubtedly cause even more problems.We don't think we know it all but we also know you guys don't either!

 

I'm not going to say your an unthinking angler Mark just one whose own passion for his own field has blinkered his thinking a bit. Hope you can understand what Im trying to say and best of the seasons wishes to you.

[barry luxton]

So you should stand with your head bowed. In shame.

 

 

 

Which you clearly are not, you sad case, because you still fail to recognise that your pathetic efforts in getting anglers banned from taking eels has made no difference to anything. Like I said, I might not be able to catch my own to eat any more, but I can buy as many as I like. You've achieved nothing except damage to angling. Well done.

 

Special thanks must also go to others. How to make and influence 'freinds'.

 

Help us save the eel – do not use them as bait!

 

THANK YOU

 

C.Daphne

 

Environment Officer

National Anguilla Club

 

The NAC are currently working alongside the Angling Trust and the Environment agency in order to save the species.

 

Hard at work are they?

[john-d]

Special thanks must also go to others. How to make and influence 'freinds'.

 

Help us save the eel – do not use them as bait!

 

THANK YOU

 

C.Daphne

 

Environment Officer

National Anguilla Club

 

The NAC are currently working alongside the Angling Trust and the Environment agency in order to save the species.

 

Hard at work are they?

Yes, Chris Daphne has been hard at work, all forms of eelfishing were to banned in Scotland but for Chris. Has long as you obtain a specific eel fishing licence from the Scottish government you can (as long as you practice catch and release) fish for eels...well done Chris.

If recreational eel fishing is ever banned (who knows) I would rather belong to the NAC and to have been pathetically accused of its demise, than to stand by and do sod while the eel goes the way of the Dodo.

I have personally never really had a problem with those who choose to eat eels or and use them as bait, until a few years ago I used plenty for pike and catfish and I only stopped when it was clear a problem existed. What as always seemed tragic to me is the lack of empathy (reaffirmed by those daft jellied eel photos) from other anglers regarding the eel, its possible demise and to those who choose to fish and return them alive.

I sincerely wish you all a peaceful Christmas and happy new year.

[Steve Coppolo]

Special thanks must also go to others. How to make and influence 'freinds'.

 

Help us save the eel – do not use them as bait!

 

THANK YOU

 

C.Daphne

 

Environment Officer

National Anguilla Club

 

The NAC are currently working alongside the Angling Trust and the Environment agency in order to save the species.

Hard at work are they?

 

The thing that areally annoys me, Barry, is that banning anglers from taking a few eels is not saving the species. So, as far as I'm concerned, that particular line is just an excuse for the busy bodies who spoil things for others. It has been said many times that anglers are being threatened with restrictions because we present an easy target. And all the while the real issues go unaddressed. Not that the real issues matter to the arrogant people who seek to restrict others for no reason other than to satisfy their egos. But trying to point out the obvious to people who have their heads stuck up their rear ends, is a waste of time. Their way is the only way and they know best. That is the reason why I posted the 'daft' pictures of the jellied eels. It was to demonstrate, graphically, that the banning of anglers has made, and will make, no difference to the eel population whatsoever, because I, or anyone else, can still go to the market and buy as many as we like. A point that seems to have been lost amongst the arrogance and smugness of certain do gooders and meddlers.

 

There is a lesson to be learned here. When you seek to ban something or someone because you are concerned abouyt the state of stocks, you have to question what effect yiou are having on them your self. If you don't, someone else will. Then, as an easy target, it is not unreasonable to expect your own calls for bans to turn around and bite you on the arse. I have now been stopped from doing something that I've always done. Something that has never had any effect on eel stocks.

 

As Elton said, the eels club boys are a 'gnats' away from being banned from even targetting eels. And for what? They don't know why eels stocks are in a bad way. They don't even know how bad stocks really are. They don't know how much influence man has had on on the state of the stocks. And they certainly don't know how much affect anglers have had or are having. But ban us all anyway, right? Just in case.

 

If these people want to be taken seriously, they should address the real issues - and if they can't, then they should bugger off and leave us alone to carry on as we've always done.

[Worms]

I'm seriously concerned that eels are now included in the same sentence as shad. I've always understood that you are not allowed to target shad. I suspect eels will be next.

Shad are protected in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (plus amendments) under section 9 (disturbance) regarding designated species in SSSI legislation (to my knowledge, all shad spawning rivers are SSSIs). My guess is that it won't be long before freshwater eels will be included under either the WCA and/or the Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1994 (as amended) as an endangered/protected species along with shad and sturgeon. How this protection might manifest itself I don't know but the creation of more SSSIs is one method. Another would be the inclusion of eels under schedule 2 of the Conservation regs or schedule 5 of the WCA. This could make the deliberate taking/disturbing of eels a criminal offence.........in effect, a total angling ban.

 

p.s. I have just noticed that the invertebrates and other species (includes fish) section of lists of European Protected Species is being revised and unavailable to download at the moment!