Eels
Introduction
Eels migrate between oceans and rivers. They are a keystone species, both important predators, but also distributors of tiny mussel larvae who hitch a ride on the fish's gills until they mature into baby mussels.
Eels feed on insects, snails, fish, crabs, shrimp, sea urchins, worms, clams, and frogs.
We Finally Know Where Eels Come From
A 6:18 minute video about the mysterious life cycle and breading habits of European Eels.
Threats
Barrier to migration such as dams and weirs.
Pollution
Climate Change
Habitat loss including destruction of wetlands.
Solutions
Remove barriers such as dams and weirs.
Reliant Species
Bald Eagles
Cormorants
Cranes
Eels (some species of eel are cannibalistic)
Egrets
Flamingos
Gulls
Hawks
Herons
Mergansers (like a duck, but with a narrow bill which has serrated edges)
Mussels
Ospreys
Other fish-eating birds
Types of Eel
There are around 800 species of eels, but the following are species we have created pages for.
Tools & Apps
Oceana
New Zealand
Spyfish Aotearoa 🐙 🦈🐟 🐠 # 📷 "Our team deploys baited underwater cameras in marine reserves all over Aotearoa New Zealand to monitor the abundance and diversity of marine life.
Help us identify and count the species of fish recorded by the cameras. Your classifications will be used to determine the effectiveness of the reserves, inform marine management, and protect our taonga (treasured) species."
Organizations
Europe
Dam Removal Europe "Rivers have always provided fundamental and vital services for mankind and the environment. However, dams disrupt the natural functioning of rivers and can cause a wide-scale decline in fish and other river wildlife. For these reasons, it is necessary to remove these barriers to return rivers to their natural, free-flowing state."
The Eel Stewardship Association (ESA) is founder of the Eel Stewardship Fund and owner of the esf trademark. ESA was established in 2015 by industry organisations of the Netherlands and Germany and it is hoped it will be adopted elsewhere.
The main goal is to accelerate the eels recovery in Europe and adopting measure to ensure sustainable use of the stock. ESA is an administrative organization. As the incomes of the ESF belong to the member states themselves, ESA-members carry out the actual activities."OSPAR "is the mechanism by which 15 Governments & the EU cooperate to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.
OSPAR started in 1972 with the Oslo Convention against dumping and was broadened to cover land-based sources of marine pollution and the offshore industry by the Paris Convention of 1974. These two conventions were unified, up-dated and extended by the 1992 OSPAR Convention. The new annex on biodiversity and ecosystems was adopted in 1998 to cover non-polluting human activities that can adversely affect the sea.
The fifteen Governments are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
OSPAR is so named because of the original Oslo and Paris Conventions ("OS" for Oslo and "PAR" for Paris)."Sustainable Eel Group "is a Europe wide conservation and science led organisation working with partner bodies and individuals to accelerate the eel's recovery."
Funding & Grants
Europe
The Eel Stewardship Fund "is established to help finance a large number of activities that contribute to the recovery of the eel stocks in European inland waterways and coastal lagoons. These activities include the restoration of the eels lifecycle which was disrupted by human activities during the last decades. The fund is used to move glass eels and juvenile eels from places where they would not survive and restocked them in selected healthy waterbodies. There the fingerlings can grow to healthy spawners. The fund also enables the support of the trap and transport of migrating silvereels so the adult eels can swim unharmed back to their spawning ground. Surplus for nature will be larger recruitment and further recovery of the stock."
Fund your dam removal "Want to remove a ‘ready to go ‘ dam but need extra funding? Try getting your removal crowdfunded!
We collaborate with WWF on their Crowdfunding Campaigns to remove dams! To see if crowdfunding is the right option for you, read below and also have a look here to see what previous campaigns looked like. Below is a list of information we require to help fundraise for your dam removal separated into three phases."