THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

For a whole range of reasons you couldn't do that
these days. For one thing, they are no longer about in
the numbers they used to be. So much so that the EU
has compelled all member states to enact protective
measures, which in the UK means that it is illegal to
deliberately catch eels, and as such, all eels taken by
anglers, including those at sea, must be immediately
returned to the water unharmed.
Another reason for not repeating our eel activities on
the River Gilpin is that it is now against the law to
fish with fresh water dead-baits transported to a water
from elsewhere in an effort to prevent the spread of
disease, which I can understand.
The fact that there are so few eels about is another
matter, and just one more example of locking the barn
door after the horse has bolted. I mean, it's not like
nobody saw this coming. It's rare for any animal to
decline to the point of needing Europe-wide
protection over a single generation. Surely then
somebody must have anticipated it.
Commercial over-cropping, as is the case with so
Charlie Pitchers, Arnside
many species on the slippery slope towards oblivion
these days, is a major factor here. What can you expect when licenses were being issued by the
Environment Agency to commercially catch them at a couple of inches in length as 'fry' in effect, as
they arrive on our shores many years before they even think of heading back to the sea to reproduce.
It's madness, and not unsurprisingly, elver catches, which feed the highly lucrative aquaculture trade,
have crashed to the point that the eel is now classed as a critically endangered species by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
It is believed that in Britain alone, numbers are down by around seventy percent, with a global decline
of nearer ninety five percent.
That to me goes beyond the definition of decline. It sounds more like the brink of extinction. But overcropping
is not the only factor here, though aquaculture is again in part to blame.
When commercial quantities of European elvers started declining, the aquaculture industry brought in
supplies of the Japanese species Anguilla japonica, some of which were infected with the parasitic
nematode Anguillicoloides crassus which infects the swim bladder and can lead to it rupturing and
ultimately death.
This is now a widespread problem in eels all across Europe, in addition to which, hydro-electricity
dams, flood defence systems and other barriers to upstream migration have exacerbated an already
serious decline, not to mention global warming and its effects on the direction of the Gulf Stream
coupled to natural changes to how the Gulf Stream affects northern Europe, which as we will see shortly,
plays a major role in the life cycle of the European silver eel.
The reproduction and life cycle of silver eels has long been a source of fascination, misunderstanding,
and study. Today the picture appears to be reasonably clear. But the story took much pains taking
unravelling.
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