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Quote:

Originally Posted by timw

DZ, My brother and I had both been involved with diadromous fishery and river restoration for quite a while before we filed the ESA eel petition. A few years back he began finding adult eels chopped up below hydro dams in Maine, we were both aware of the elver boom in the 90’s, and the problems the elvers had getting upstream past dams. The more research we did on the eel, the more convinced we were there were serious problems that were not being addressed.

In part, what spurred our petition was ASMFC decision to request an ESA review of the eel. Given the sometimes indecisive nature of the ASMFC, this indicated to us there was a serious problem with eel stocks. A problem that ASMFC felt was beyond their ability to control, or to figure out. It was also clear that the individual states did not have the resources or willingness to deal with the problem.

At the time we filed the petition we did not know whether or not the Federal Services would do the ESA status review requested by ASMFC. As it turned out the Services decided to do a stock status review around the same time we filed the petition, but the Services review would not be done under the ESA. We felt it was important to have the review done under ESA, because its requirements are very specific and must be followed by action if it is determined that the species is endangered or threatened. Otherwise they could have found that the eel was endangered or threatened, but there would be no mechanism to force anyone to take action.

#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&, I am not an expert on eels, and don’t pretend to be one. My brother and I are “laymen”; we have hunted, fished and observed all our lives. We are not biologists; we researched and wrote the petition ourselves, on our own time. As for my passion and commitment to eels and the environment, I do the best I can with the time I have.

I am glad you explained it ,for that..Thank you! I appreciate you giving us some background as to why..Thanks !

Now that all this is out there, does anyone have advice on how we can stop the rampant exportation of eels overseas that are used for food...Does thsi no mean contacting senators etc..and get them involved on the WTO level? They stated last night that only 5% is used as bait the remaining 95% is shipped over seas as food fish.

Drop the Watts brothers in the middle of nowhere and they will flourish with just the shirts on their backs.And chew...

Starting to see the logic of the ESA argument--especially after hearing TimW's articulate breakdown. As much as I hate the idea of eels going away as a bait source, I got thinking about the situation on the ride home from the hearing. Any REAL effort to protect eels would have to cross a number of agency boundaries--dealing with hydroelectric licensing, export of glass and food eels, etc. I would have to disagree with a few other posts here. I doubt the stock assessment will paint a very nice picture, and that certainly will have a big impact of USF&W findings, as well as future Commission actions via addenda or amendments. Timeline would likely be 2007 if the USF&W defers to ASMFC, but I suspect the Commission will have to implement something with teeth, likely through possession restriction, in that scenario. Otherwise, I'd expect some major action from USF&W sooner than later.

ASMFC action seems like it will be futile--you're not going to solve stock collapse involving complicated environmental issues by simply banning possession or restricting fishing for eels.

If something is going to be done, I'd just as soon see something that will create REAL change.

Was good to see all in attendance, and I'm sure glad--as Dennis is--that I at least got to pick up my eel-possession exemption permit.

Zach Harvey

Does anyone know if it is possible for eels to be raised in captivity (farm raised) and then released back into the wild once mature to spawn. The reason I ask is that if the commercial fishery takes (and I’m using numbers from earlier in this post) 2.5 million elvers (which at the stated rate of 100,000 elvers to produce one spawn ready eel equates to only 250 adult eels), couldn’t something be worked out that they were required to release a percentage of those eels after they reach maturity to spawn. To me it seems that raising the eels in captivity and releasing them as an adult would greatly increase their chances of survival (based on the assumption that the majority of predation and mortality occurs in the juvenile life stages) and that if the numbers taken and percentages returned to the wind are figured out correctly, having a commercial eel farming industry could actually help eel populations if done responsibly. Keep in mind that its early in the morning and I’m just thinking out loud here with no research to back me up on this.

29,
I raised that exact same point while I was discussing the eel situation with a couple of members of the ASMFC's technical committe. They told me that's almost exactly what they do in europe with european eels. They harvest the glass eels and raise them in captivity and then, when they are adults they must release something like three adults for every 100,000 elvers they took in. OTOH - the european eel is also in trouble, maybe as much so as the American eel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZuluHotel

Howdy Zach, Just dont take Jims story idea away! Good to see you here......

It is what it is and I would not want to see eels wiped out so, I agree if something needs to be done, do it with some teeth!