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):
- Sweden
Country/Region:
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: National Level
Name/Details of location: Swedish waterways
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 2007
End Year: 2008
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
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
Motivation of use: Basic subsistence and Income generation from trade (individual/household/community)
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, National / local private sector and International private sector
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
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Details of assessment carried out: CITES Non detriment findings
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The lack of reliable and absolute data on the eel population is a constraining factor and generally indirect and relative trends and indices have to be employed. When trying to use the IUCN checklist it becomes clear that the population is in bad status mainly with concern to a low human tolerance, negative population trends, major threats, no catch quotas, no protected areas, low confidence in harvest management and a lacking protection. However, more and better data will become available in Europe within a few years when the EMPs and DCR have been fully implemented and operational. The EC Eel Regulation and the coming national EMPs will hopefully improve the situation mainly through a better protection, monitoring and control.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Details of assessment carried out: CITES Non detriment findings
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: economic sustainability dependent on ecological sustainability, which can currently not be guaranteed due to lack of data
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: not recorded
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?: not recorded
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
A panmictic population that has declined to very low levels as the European eel cannot be managed on a local or national scale. Instead potential surpluses on a local scale may counterbalance deficits in other areas. This can be done through restocking suitable areas of high qualities for eel survival and growth with free access to the sea with glass eels from areas where glass eels still occur in abundance (above carrying capacity). Correspondingly, compliance with set targets (by the European Council) may well be assessed using both local indicators as well as stock wide indicators compiled by the EICAC/ICES Eel Working Group. A first natural checkpoint will be in 2012 when the EU Commission will make their first evaluation of the measures in action. This occasion seems appropriate also to reconsider if a NDF is possible on the species level making full use of all new data and experience made available through the monitoring required by the EC Regulation.
Record source
Information about the record source: formal_data_stats
Date of publication/issue/production: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
Date of record entry: 2023-10-05