National Anguilla Club

[Leon Roskilly]

where I live the Severn is paved with the blighters.

 

 

When elvers return from the breeding grounds, most end up on the Western side, with far fewer making it around to the 'shadow' of the eastern coast.

 

This is important because sex is determined by population density.

 

Where there are lots of eels, they all develop as males, where the population density is less they become females (females are larger than males, so anglers on the Eastern side of the UK will encounter the larger fish).

 

(The sexes only really mix together at the end of their lives when they gather to spawn).

 

One of the concerns is that the population may reach a point where nearly all become females, not good for the future of the species!

 

 

Some eels stay in saltwater, some move far up the rivers, some become resident in still waters.

 

Generally the eels lower down the river will return to the sea to spawn after around 5 years, with those in the upper reaches staying 20 years or so (so the bigger fish are upriver).

 

Those that become resident in stillwater will probably never experience the trigger of increased flow that will have them heading back down to the sea, and may stay there forever, living some seventy years or more.

 

The problem isn't now so much with the eels, but with the returning elvers whose numbers have crashed, so as successive year groups return to the sea, fewer and fewer adult eels are left in the rivers, a process that will take many years to become apparent.

 

Why are the eels disappearing?

 

There are many possible factors, but mystery as well.

 

 

. The number of elvers removed, both to be sold for food and for stocking aquaculture production (eels only reproduce after they have returned to th Sargasso, I maybe wrong, but I don't think anyone has cracked the problem of articificially breeding them)

 

. Hydro-electric and other dams stopping the eels getting upriver

 

. Chemical pollution of their environment

 

. Spread of parasites that make it impossible for them to make the long journey back to the breeding grounds

 

. Changing ocean currents, taking them in the wrong direction when they go back, or the elvers return

 

. Other, more subtle effects of gloabl warming.

 

One of the problems of having a complex life history, is that ther are more points where environmental disruption can spell disaster.

 

Eels are so familiar and so numerous in both saltwater and aquatic environments, that many other organisms and environments have evolved to become dependent upon their presence and their 'services' (ie nutrient transfer, food, carrion removal etc), that they may also become endangered in ways that we will only learn when its too late.

 

A favourite food of both otters and cormorants, we may find outselves catching fewer fish of the species we value, because the eels are no longer there.

[Guest Rabbit]

Some interesting points there Leon, had no idea that eels are sexed in such a way. Regarding their return to the Sargasso sea I understand that there is some doubt if this area is in fact where the European eel migrate to spawn

 

Any movement of the Gulf Stream is critical as to where the elvers finish up on our coast I believe, yet another factor regarding global warming

[bluerinse]

Hi Mark

 

I might be interested! I have caught many eels, but not through targeting them, I would love to know more. I have always had a bit of a thing for eels. I also had a great teacher as a kid, John Sidley taught me every thing I know about pike fishing in my early days, I fished with him at Earlswood lakes, He took me and my friend under his wing, and he also reckoned Earlswood lakes had the potential to hold a record eel.

He fished for them on Earlswood on occasion but told me he was going to have a serious campaign for them. I remember he was in the Angling Times with a big eel from Earlswood, (he was often in with pike) if he ever did have a serious and concentrated campaign at Earlswood I didn’t see him. (Night fishing was not permitted) I remember he told me he was going to put a sack of dead animals in a corner of the lake, leave it for a week or two then fish there, I was never sure if he was pulling my leg.

I would love to have a go for eels but don't really know how to target them.

Anyway thought you might like to hear about Earlswood, John might have been right and that big eel is sitting in there waiting for you!!!

 

Cheers Richard

[Happy Bob]

How do you join the club Mark? I do a bit of eel fishing myself.