maddog
01-08-2006, 05:05 AM
Found this story in todays Standard Times.
For endangered eels, a silver lining
Middleboro man helps the snakelike fish pass Wareham dam each spring
By NATALIE WHITE, Standard-Times correspondent
JOHN SLADEWSKI/Standard-Times special
Tim Watts stands by the Weweantic River, where he helps hundreds of American eels navigate the Horseshoe Pond Dam each spring.
WAREHAM -- Tim Watts kicked up dust and iron slag as he returned to the scene of his crime. He doesn't regret what he's done down at the Horseshoe Pond Dam. It was a matter of life and death.
Next spring, when slivery, silvery baby eels start running up the Weweantic River and hit the old mill dam, Mr. Watts will be back.
And he'll do it again.
Armed with plastic bags, he'll scoop the snakelike eels and lift them over the dam.
"I guess it's my act of civil disobedience," said Mr. Watts of South Middleboro, a nighttime janitor at Stonehill College in Easton.
For his work to protect waterways and their ecosystems in New England, Mr. Watts recently was named a "river hero" by a national environmental group. But the act of helping the eels over the dam is against wildlife regulations. It is technically illegal to transport wild animals from one spot to another.
Mr. Watts has been warned. He doesn't care.
He's going to do whatever it takes to save the American eel.
If it's not too late.
Mr. Watts and his brother, Doug Watts of Augusta, Maine, have become the unofficial champions of the slimy creatures. For the last decade, they've lobbied to get recognition and protection for the American eel, going as far as leaving dead eels on doorsteps of fisheries regulators.
After filing a citizens' petition in late 2004, they got the attention of fisheries authorities who have agreed to study the fish with an eye toward making it an endangered species.
Despite the victory, Mr. Watts fears that the eel's story may have a passenger-pigeon ending.
"No one cared about the passenger pigeon, and now they're gone. That's what's happening with the American eel, and I don't think people get it," said Mr. Watts. "When species go extinct, that's an indicator that things are wrong. The passenger pigeon was once the most abundant bird in the country, and now they're gone. That's where we are going with the American eel."
The last surviving passenger pigeon died in captivity in 1914, the end of a species that once numbered more than five billion.
The American eel, once so abundant it counted for more than a quarter of all fish biomass on the East Coast, is in precipitous decline from Canada to Florida, said Mr. Watts.
Population data is spotty but alarming. For example, young eels migrating into the St. Lawrence River fell from 935,000 in 1985 to 8,000 in 1993 to levels near zero in recent years, according to an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission report included in the Watts' petition.
"We should care about what happens to the species around us. When a species is threatened with extinction, we need to pay attention," said Mr. Watts, who until the last few years ran his own tree climbing and trimming business covering Southeastern Massachusetts.
danger signs
Although signs of the eel's decline have been around for years, little is being done to stop it, Mr. Watts said. He said environmentalists have been reluctant to take up the cause and regulators have been slow to find protection for the eel.
In March 2004, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's American Eel Management Board recommended that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service consider the eel as a candidate for the Endangered Species Act. But by the end of that year, Mr. Watts said, the eel remained unprotected.
Frustrated, Doug and Tim Watts decided to force the issue. They filed their citizens' petition at the end of 2004, asking federal officials to decide whether the American eel should be listed as an endangered species. The petition triggered a legal schedule requiring the agencies to meet certain deadlines for a status review, public input, collection of data and finally, a decision.
Mr. Watts said fisheries experts have to answer the questions: Is the eel threatened or in danger of going extinct? Should it be protected?
After an initial review, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed in July to do a more in-depth study of the status of the American eel and the agencies expect to issue a report and recommendation later this year.
Heather Bell, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is coordinating the review.
She said that although the official public comment period ended in September, the two agencies are still actively collecting information about the eel. Ms. Bell has been gathering information on the history and threats to the eel from a variety of sources, including the hydropower industry, forestry officials, the Penobscot tribe, recreational, commercial fisheries and private individuals.
Ms. Bell said she is particularly seeking information on barriers to migration and changes in wetlands, habitat, oceanic conditions, harvest and contaminants.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is conducting an American eel stock assessment to determine trends in eel populations. This report is expected out in February.
Silver rush
Native Americans have harvested the eels since the 17th century and, in more recent decades, a commercial fishery has grown. The elver commercial fishery became popular in the 1970s in response to demands from Asia, where the eel is considered a delicacy. In the late 1990s, the price for eels topped $300 a pound, creating a gold-rush mentality. According to the ASMFC, commercial landings for the American eel have dropped dramatically. In 1985 fishermen caught a high of 1.8 million pounds, compared to a low of 649,000 pounds in 2002.
Pollution may be a culprit. The eel can accumulate high concentrations of contaminants such as DDT and PCBs and, as bottom dwellers, may be absorbing enough pollution to potentially cause "an increased incidence of disease and reproductive impairment," according to the ASMFC.
Dams also appear to be working against the American eel.
The commission estimated in 2000 that more than 80 percent of the eels' freshwater habitat in the United States has been destroyed or lost, mostly due to dams. For instance, stream access from Connecticut to Maine has been reduced by an estimated 66,890 miles to 6,209 miles.
Horseshoe Pond Dam -- where horseshoes were once manufactured -- is only one of more than 15,000 dams blocking streams on the Eastern seaboard, said Mr. Watts.
About 1,000 of them are powerful hydroelectric power dams. Most of the rest, such as Horseshoe Pond, were built decades ago as part of industrial mill complexes that are no longer in use.
While some dams provide ladders for other migratory fish such as alewives, few are outfitted to make passage easy for the bottom-dwelling eels. In the spring, only small numbers of the very hardiest eels manage to climb over the dams. In the fall, thousands of adult eels are chopped up in the hydroelectric turbines as they answer the call to return to the ocean to spawn.
American eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea, a swath of seaweed-rich waters between Bermuda and the Azores. The elvers float along the currents, following ancient migratory paths to get to freshwater streams. Here, the eels live many years into adulthood, some older than 30 years, before answering a mysterious urge to return to the Sargasso Sea and reproduce.
The European eel -- which also spawns in the Sargasso Sea but travels to rivers in Europe -- is also in decline.
river hero
Mr. Watts became interested in eels about 10 years ago, when he and his children began visiting the Weweantic River along Wareham's Birch Island Conservation Area, where the Horseshoe Pond Dam sits. He noticed hundreds of eels struggling to get upstream each spring, with only a few managing to squirm up and over the abandoned dam.
Around the same time, Doug Watts began finding dead eels, sliced by the turbines of hydroelectric dams in Maine. In an effort to bring attention to the problem, Doug Watts deposited dead eels at the entryways of fisheries officials in Maine.
As the Watts brothers grew to understand the problems facing the eel, their affection, admiration and sympathy for the slithery, slippery creatures grew.
A self-proclaimed "river rat," Tim Watts spent much of his childhood along the streams and rivers of Southeastern Massachusetts. His overnight job as a college janitor keeps his days free to head to the rivers, teaching and sharing his passion about the waterways and their inhabitants with his children.
A member of several environmental organizations, Mr. Watts has spent hundreds of hours volunteering on their behalf. When he isn't on the rivers, he's lobbying or working for them, attending meetings, writing petitions, researching histories, digging up long-forgotten facts.
Mr. Watts doesn't have a formal education in marine biology. He isn't trained in environmental issues.
"But his passion has made him knowledgeable. People seek him out when they need to know about the rivers," said Bill Napolitano, the director of environmental programs for the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development and project coordinator for the Taunton River Wild and Scenic River Study. Mr. Watts serves as a volunteer on the study's committee.
Last year, Mr. Watts' work was honored by the River Network, a national environmental group that supports river and watershed protection efforts. Calling him a "Massachusetts River Activist," Mr. Watts was named one of five River Heroes honored by the network in 2005.
For several years now, Mr. Watts has been trying to make passage easier for the eels at Horseshoe Pondand and other dams in New England.
In the last five years, he and his brother have assisted tens of thousands of eels over impassable dams, only to be warned by fisheries officials that their actions violated wildlife laws.
Ironically, the brothers said, those same officials say that the eel kills at hydroelectric dams are legal and say there's little they can do to help the elvers that die when they cannot pass the dams.
The Watts have asked for safe passage for the eels, but so far no one has seen fit to require it. Until they do, Mr. Watts said his instincts will lead him back to the Horseshoe Pond Dam each spring to help the eels.
"If I stop to help a turtle across the road, is that illegal? It probably is, but I'm still going to do it," said Mr. Watts.
This story appeared on Page A1 of The Standard-Times on January 8, 2006.
For endangered eels, a silver lining
Middleboro man helps the snakelike fish pass Wareham dam each spring
By NATALIE WHITE, Standard-Times correspondent
JOHN SLADEWSKI/Standard-Times special
Tim Watts stands by the Weweantic River, where he helps hundreds of American eels navigate the Horseshoe Pond Dam each spring.
WAREHAM -- Tim Watts kicked up dust and iron slag as he returned to the scene of his crime. He doesn't regret what he's done down at the Horseshoe Pond Dam. It was a matter of life and death.
Next spring, when slivery, silvery baby eels start running up the Weweantic River and hit the old mill dam, Mr. Watts will be back.
And he'll do it again.
Armed with plastic bags, he'll scoop the snakelike eels and lift them over the dam.
"I guess it's my act of civil disobedience," said Mr. Watts of South Middleboro, a nighttime janitor at Stonehill College in Easton.
For his work to protect waterways and their ecosystems in New England, Mr. Watts recently was named a "river hero" by a national environmental group. But the act of helping the eels over the dam is against wildlife regulations. It is technically illegal to transport wild animals from one spot to another.
Mr. Watts has been warned. He doesn't care.
He's going to do whatever it takes to save the American eel.
If it's not too late.
Mr. Watts and his brother, Doug Watts of Augusta, Maine, have become the unofficial champions of the slimy creatures. For the last decade, they've lobbied to get recognition and protection for the American eel, going as far as leaving dead eels on doorsteps of fisheries regulators.
After filing a citizens' petition in late 2004, they got the attention of fisheries authorities who have agreed to study the fish with an eye toward making it an endangered species.
Despite the victory, Mr. Watts fears that the eel's story may have a passenger-pigeon ending.
"No one cared about the passenger pigeon, and now they're gone. That's what's happening with the American eel, and I don't think people get it," said Mr. Watts. "When species go extinct, that's an indicator that things are wrong. The passenger pigeon was once the most abundant bird in the country, and now they're gone. That's where we are going with the American eel."
The last surviving passenger pigeon died in captivity in 1914, the end of a species that once numbered more than five billion.
The American eel, once so abundant it counted for more than a quarter of all fish biomass on the East Coast, is in precipitous decline from Canada to Florida, said Mr. Watts.
Population data is spotty but alarming. For example, young eels migrating into the St. Lawrence River fell from 935,000 in 1985 to 8,000 in 1993 to levels near zero in recent years, according to an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission report included in the Watts' petition.
"We should care about what happens to the species around us. When a species is threatened with extinction, we need to pay attention," said Mr. Watts, who until the last few years ran his own tree climbing and trimming business covering Southeastern Massachusetts.
danger signs
Although signs of the eel's decline have been around for years, little is being done to stop it, Mr. Watts said. He said environmentalists have been reluctant to take up the cause and regulators have been slow to find protection for the eel.
In March 2004, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's American Eel Management Board recommended that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service consider the eel as a candidate for the Endangered Species Act. But by the end of that year, Mr. Watts said, the eel remained unprotected.
Frustrated, Doug and Tim Watts decided to force the issue. They filed their citizens' petition at the end of 2004, asking federal officials to decide whether the American eel should be listed as an endangered species. The petition triggered a legal schedule requiring the agencies to meet certain deadlines for a status review, public input, collection of data and finally, a decision.
Mr. Watts said fisheries experts have to answer the questions: Is the eel threatened or in danger of going extinct? Should it be protected?
After an initial review, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed in July to do a more in-depth study of the status of the American eel and the agencies expect to issue a report and recommendation later this year.
Heather Bell, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is coordinating the review.
She said that although the official public comment period ended in September, the two agencies are still actively collecting information about the eel. Ms. Bell has been gathering information on the history and threats to the eel from a variety of sources, including the hydropower industry, forestry officials, the Penobscot tribe, recreational, commercial fisheries and private individuals.
Ms. Bell said she is particularly seeking information on barriers to migration and changes in wetlands, habitat, oceanic conditions, harvest and contaminants.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is conducting an American eel stock assessment to determine trends in eel populations. This report is expected out in February.
Silver rush
Native Americans have harvested the eels since the 17th century and, in more recent decades, a commercial fishery has grown. The elver commercial fishery became popular in the 1970s in response to demands from Asia, where the eel is considered a delicacy. In the late 1990s, the price for eels topped $300 a pound, creating a gold-rush mentality. According to the ASMFC, commercial landings for the American eel have dropped dramatically. In 1985 fishermen caught a high of 1.8 million pounds, compared to a low of 649,000 pounds in 2002.
Pollution may be a culprit. The eel can accumulate high concentrations of contaminants such as DDT and PCBs and, as bottom dwellers, may be absorbing enough pollution to potentially cause "an increased incidence of disease and reproductive impairment," according to the ASMFC.
Dams also appear to be working against the American eel.
The commission estimated in 2000 that more than 80 percent of the eels' freshwater habitat in the United States has been destroyed or lost, mostly due to dams. For instance, stream access from Connecticut to Maine has been reduced by an estimated 66,890 miles to 6,209 miles.
Horseshoe Pond Dam -- where horseshoes were once manufactured -- is only one of more than 15,000 dams blocking streams on the Eastern seaboard, said Mr. Watts.
About 1,000 of them are powerful hydroelectric power dams. Most of the rest, such as Horseshoe Pond, were built decades ago as part of industrial mill complexes that are no longer in use.
While some dams provide ladders for other migratory fish such as alewives, few are outfitted to make passage easy for the bottom-dwelling eels. In the spring, only small numbers of the very hardiest eels manage to climb over the dams. In the fall, thousands of adult eels are chopped up in the hydroelectric turbines as they answer the call to return to the ocean to spawn.
American eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea, a swath of seaweed-rich waters between Bermuda and the Azores. The elvers float along the currents, following ancient migratory paths to get to freshwater streams. Here, the eels live many years into adulthood, some older than 30 years, before answering a mysterious urge to return to the Sargasso Sea and reproduce.
The European eel -- which also spawns in the Sargasso Sea but travels to rivers in Europe -- is also in decline.
river hero
Mr. Watts became interested in eels about 10 years ago, when he and his children began visiting the Weweantic River along Wareham's Birch Island Conservation Area, where the Horseshoe Pond Dam sits. He noticed hundreds of eels struggling to get upstream each spring, with only a few managing to squirm up and over the abandoned dam.
Around the same time, Doug Watts began finding dead eels, sliced by the turbines of hydroelectric dams in Maine. In an effort to bring attention to the problem, Doug Watts deposited dead eels at the entryways of fisheries officials in Maine.
As the Watts brothers grew to understand the problems facing the eel, their affection, admiration and sympathy for the slithery, slippery creatures grew.
A self-proclaimed "river rat," Tim Watts spent much of his childhood along the streams and rivers of Southeastern Massachusetts. His overnight job as a college janitor keeps his days free to head to the rivers, teaching and sharing his passion about the waterways and their inhabitants with his children.
A member of several environmental organizations, Mr. Watts has spent hundreds of hours volunteering on their behalf. When he isn't on the rivers, he's lobbying or working for them, attending meetings, writing petitions, researching histories, digging up long-forgotten facts.
Mr. Watts doesn't have a formal education in marine biology. He isn't trained in environmental issues.
"But his passion has made him knowledgeable. People seek him out when they need to know about the rivers," said Bill Napolitano, the director of environmental programs for the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development and project coordinator for the Taunton River Wild and Scenic River Study. Mr. Watts serves as a volunteer on the study's committee.
Last year, Mr. Watts' work was honored by the River Network, a national environmental group that supports river and watershed protection efforts. Calling him a "Massachusetts River Activist," Mr. Watts was named one of five River Heroes honored by the network in 2005.
For several years now, Mr. Watts has been trying to make passage easier for the eels at Horseshoe Pondand and other dams in New England.
In the last five years, he and his brother have assisted tens of thousands of eels over impassable dams, only to be warned by fisheries officials that their actions violated wildlife laws.
Ironically, the brothers said, those same officials say that the eel kills at hydroelectric dams are legal and say there's little they can do to help the elvers that die when they cannot pass the dams.
The Watts have asked for safe passage for the eels, but so far no one has seen fit to require it. Until they do, Mr. Watts said his instincts will lead him back to the Horseshoe Pond Dam each spring to help the eels.
"If I stop to help a turtle across the road, is that illegal? It probably is, but I'm still going to do it," said Mr. Watts.
This story appeared on Page A1 of The Standard-Times on January 8, 2006.