A. Species
Scientific name: Anguilla anguilla
Common name(s): European eel
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Critically Endangered
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- Czechia
Country/Region: Czech Republic
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: Sub-national / Sub-region / Sub-State
Name/Details of location: central Bohemia and Prague
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 2005
End Year: 2018
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat and Wild species born/bred and raised/produced in captivity or through artificial propagation
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Targeted fishing harvesting/exploiting or collecting wild aquatic resources
Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed, Recreation and Conservation Management
Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Recreational, Traditional/Cultural/Spiritual and Population/Area Management
Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat and Wild species born/bred and raised/produced in captivity or through artificial propagation
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: Czech Fishing Union angling logbooks and (inter)national survey data
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: data from logbooks analysed in this study show fewer eels being harvested in the study rivers where minimum legal size was increased from 45cm to 50 cm, but overall data from other areas presented in the paper show that eel populations continue to decline throughout their range despite additional stocking of rivers with captive bred fish
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: this study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The well regulated eel angling in the studied rivers is not the reason for the severe decline of European eel populations throughout their native range. Eels contribute 0.006% to the catch of recreational anglers in the study area and the rivers are being stocked with elvers and yellow eel by the Fishing Union. Authors state: "anglers mostly know that the two main dams on the Elbe River (Geesthacht in Germany and Stˇrekov in the Czech Republic) together with an overabundance of obstacles on Czech rivers prevent effective eel migration. Small hydroelectric power plants are installed on the studied rivers and streams, and their turbines can cause lethal damage to eels due to their strong sense of migration. [...] To remove survival bottlenecks of migrating eels, their angling should be banned or restricted in every country where eels pass through during their spawning migration. Otherwise, eels will get killed in the country with the lowest level of protection against overharvesting." NEVERTHELESS, this then leads the authors to state: "Since eel angling is not banned in all countries, we support banning eel angling altogether, instead of setting a closed season."
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: this study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The well regulated eel angling in the studied rivers is not the reason for the severe decline of European eel populations throughout their native range. Eels contribute 0.006% to the catch of recreational anglers in the study area and the rivers are being stocked with elvers and yellow eel by the Fishing Union. Authors state: "anglers mostly know that the two main dams on the Elbe River (Geesthacht in Germany and Stˇrekov in the Czech Republic) together with an overabundance of obstacles on Czech rivers prevent effective eel migration. Small hydroelectric power plants are installed on the studied rivers and streams, and their turbines can cause lethal damage to eels due to their strong sense of migration. [...] To remove survival bottlenecks of migrating eels, their angling should be banned or restricted in every country where eels pass through during their spawning migration. Otherwise, eels will get killed in the country with the lowest level of protection against overharvesting." NEVERTHELESS, this then leads the authors to state: "Since eel angling is not banned in all countries, we support banning eel angling altogether, instead of setting a closed season."
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: this study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The well regulated eel angling in the studied rivers is not the reason for the severe decline of European eel populations throughout their native range. Eels contribute 0.006% to the catch of recreational anglers in the study area and the rivers are being stocked with elvers and yellow eel by the Fishing Union. Authors state: "anglers mostly know that the two main dams on the Elbe River (Geesthacht in Germany and Stˇrekov in the Czech Republic) together with an overabundance of obstacles on Czech rivers prevent effective eel migration. Small hydroelectric power plants are installed on the studied rivers and streams, and their turbines can cause lethal damage to eels due to their strong sense of migration. [...] To remove survival bottlenecks of migrating eels, their angling should be banned or restricted in every country where eels pass through during their spawning migration. Otherwise, eels will get killed in the country with the lowest level of protection against overharvesting." NEVERTHELESS, this then leads the authors to state: "Since eel angling is not banned in all countries, we support banning eel angling altogether, instead of setting a closed season."
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
Authors conclude that implementing a larger minimum legal angling size from 45cm to 50cm did achieve its goal, because it led to decreased eel harvest. Thus, similarly increased minimum legal size limits would benefit European eel conservation throughout it's geographic range. Nevertheless, they also conclude "eel stocking management seems to have no effect on the natural eel reproduction and, therefore, does not contribute to the sustainability of the eel population. The eel stocking program should, therefore, be re-evaluated. Possible options are choosing different habitats for eel stocking or choosing a different stocking strategy. Another option is to ban eel angling altogether to encourage anglers to target non-eel fish species instead, further removing the angling pressure from eels so that their population may recover."
Record source
Information about the record source: scientific_pub
Date of publication/issue/production: 2022-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
Date of record entry: 2022-12-28