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Ron,
I am aware of the ESA petition and I have in fact talked to Tim Watts who is one of the brothers. In fact the USF&WS and NOAA fisheries process is not going to be a lot different than the ASMFC process. The feds are going to do their own stock assessment based on the ASMFC stock assessment and simply adding to the ASMFC data by holding regional workshops for fishery managers from the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Great Lakes Marine Fisheries Commission. You can find an outline of the Federal process in the minutes of the American eel management board of the AMFC, where thry outlines their plans to the board.
Frankly I am not optomistic that the feds will list the eel as endangered. I think it will be be a stretch for them to list the eel as threatened. But if they do either then FERC would have to take action to reduce eel mortality through the dams.
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