Eel Management Plan

[Elton]

Details added here:

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/News/eel_management_plan.html

[Steve Burke]

I'm surprised that this has received no comment.

 

The EA reported "We are at a point where eels could become extinct......"

 

Food for thought, eh?

[Leon Roskilly]

I was in conversation with a couple of people from the Environment Agency earlier in the week.

 

They were bemoaning the fact that the EA doesn't have the funds to carry out the survey work etc.

[ColinW]

Interesting article. It is generally accepted that eels spawn in the Sargasso sea and that the product of that spawning arrives on our shores but as far as I'm aware no-one has ever shown that the eels that migrate down our rivers actually make the return journey to the Sargasso sea. Why would they? It wouldn't surprise me if our eels spawn somewhere completely different, maybe their offspring end up in South America. If anyone knows different I'd be interested to know.

[chesters1]

perhaps the EA should stop getting money for elver permits even a KG of elvers is an awfull lot of elvers ,we dont even eat them so they go abroad ,if we dont eat them stop them being caught to supply foreigners

 

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/commo..._04_1209247.pdf

 

the EA make an awful lot of money for licencies to catch fish most cant afford and no doupt go abroad ,when the last time you saw sea trout at tesco's at an affordable price.

 

its not hard to fathom out! if you catch fish and elvers before they get upstream the upstream amount falls

Edited July 11, 2007 by chesters1

[Kappa]

I've been fishing the thames and its tributaries around Oxford for 20 years and I've never caught an eel round here.

 

Were there ever many eels near Oxford?

 

Rich

[bluerinse]

I was talking with the owner of a tackle shop last week who told that an EA Baliff had told him that the elver run this year was the bigest ever recorded.

There is some though apparently that eel numbers these go in cycles. There a lot of stories about declining eel populations but the EA Guy said he thinks in 3-4 years the rivers will be full of bootlace eels again.

 

Lets hope it true

[poledark]

The lakes I fish in Kent are full of eels...using a maggot feeder has caught me about 100 over the last three weeks.

 

Most were 2.5lbs or more, up to a weighed 6lb 2oz....quite a few 4+

 

I suppose the question is, "will they ever go back to sea and spawn?"

 

Den (I was fishing for carp )

[Vagabond]

an EA Baliff had told him that the elver run this year was the bigest ever recorded.

 

Am I right in assuming (from your location) that this was in some part of the Severn system?

 

I have seen two massive elver runs this season - one in a Lancashire river and one in Sussex river

 

he thinks in 3-4 years the rivers will be full of bootlace eels again.

 

Fished a river this weekend that has lots of bootlace eels NOW

 

Have had some bigger eels in lakes too in the last two seasons, like Poldark, by "accident"

 

Is it just rivers running into the N Sea and Thames estuary that are short of eels?

[bluerinse]

Am I right in assuming (from your location) that this was in some part of the Severn system?

 

Yes it was in the seven system.

I wonder if the EA publish this info somewere I have looked on thier websit but can't find any info.