The instrument for financing eel measures
The Eel Stewardship Fund
The Eel Stewardship Fund was established to finance activities that contribute to the sustainable restocking of eel in European inland waters. These activities include the restocking of glass eels and rock eels, the development of sustainable solutions for catching and rearing eels and environmentally and animal-friendly processing methods. The ESF promotes scientific research into eels and contributes to the funding of projects to overcome obstacles on migration routes.
The background
ESF members strive for the sustainable conservation of both the European eel and the eel industry.
Since 1950, the eel population has been threatened by pollution, natural enemies such as cormorants and overfishing. As a result, the natural estuaries and the eel population have been severely damaged. However, the biggest challenge is posed by hydroelectric power stations, water treatment plants and pumping stations in our inland waterways, which block the eels' migration routes.
Eels are born in the ocean and then swim in large numbers across the Atlantic to fresh water, where they continue their development. However, our European coastline is now equipped with so many flood defences that the rock eels have great difficulty reaching fresh water and swimming back out to sea for the return journey. As fishing is now strictly controlled and the eel industry has developed new standards to reduce its impact on natural resources, much attention is focussed on restoring eel migration routes.
Utilisation of the ESF
Eel producers with an ESF licence may display the ESF logo on their packaging and marketing and communication materials. Wholesalers and retailers can have a customer licence, which shows customers that they are supporting the foundation by buying eel. The eel sold under the ESF licence is registered in the country concerned. Each member country has its own account through which projects are financed.
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How the inventoryincrease
The ESF contributes to restocking projects in addition to the EU's glass eel restocking programme. In the EU, each year tens of millions of elvers and juvenile eels in fresh water to increase the natural stocks.
The purpose of restocking is to increase the emigration rates of silver eels. The ESF participates in restocking projects. At least 60 % of eels less than 12 cm in length caught by licensed fisheries during the year must be used for riverine eel restocking projects.
Every EU Member State is obliged to take conservation measures. The Eel Regulation explicitly refers to restocking as a conservation measure. Many countries have adopted this method as the most important conservation measure and therefore buy glass eels for restocking in inland waters. In addition, the ESF (co-)finances extra restocking projects of glass eels and pre-bred eels*. To this end, tens of millions of elvers are released into freshwater every year to increase the natural stocks.
Scientific research
Good eel management is based on solid knowledge. This is the reason why ESA members initiate and fund scientific research.
One example is research into the reproduction of eels in captivity, carried out by Wageningen University and Imares. Although the eel has been part of our culture for thousands of years, people still do not understand this enigmatic creature. Aristotle believed that eels were created from mud. Pliny the Elder, on the other hand, thought that eels reproduce by rubbing against rocks. Numerous scientists have spent a lifetime working to expand our knowledge of this marvellous fish. The very small larva was first found in the Sargosso Sea by a Danish biologist in 1923. Scientists are still convinced that the eel has its spawning grounds in large parts of the Atlantic south of Bermuda. Many conservationists and scientists still dream of being the first to witness the eel spawning in the wild.
Determining the international population of freshwater eels is proving difficult due to their scattered distribution and nocturnal and enigmatic behaviour, for which there is little data, and a lack of understanding of the relationship between recruitment, freshwater populations and return migration. Many questions remain open and unanswered, which means that science needs to better study the eel and build a better understanding and broader knowledge.
The eel has existed for around 100 million years. It has survived the ice ages and has adapted to the many climatic and continental changes.
The questions of how they can survive and what humans need to do to ensure that the eel can once again exist in abundance are driving ESA members to promote and fund scientific research. Examples of this scientific research include Research into the reproduction of eels in captivity, research into larval nutrition, research into topics such as survival, behaviour at locks, the migrations of silver eels and the collection and analysis of data. ESF gives universities the opportunity to conduct further research on eels.
Barriers and obstacles to eel migration
The eel currently faces a myriad of obstacles when it wants to enter or return to the sea. The European coast is well protected by coastal defence projects. The small number of juvenile eels that manage to make their way through these barriers are confronted with numerous water management stations and pumping stations on their way to fresh water. They have to survive there for three to fifteen years, depending on the region where they grew up, before they can swim back to the sea. Once they have started their return journey to the sea, they are stopped by the same dangerous barriers.
European countries have limited catch and sales quotas for eel. This is one of the ways in which Europe is trying to restore a healthy and growing eel population. These efforts for natural growth are thwarted by man-made obstacles that the eel encounters when trying to fulfil its life cycle. In addition, there is a lack of funding to make the migration routes passable for the eel.
Throughout Europe, there are various projects to save the eel from an early death in a water turbine. However, these projects consume considerable amounts of money. At this point, the number of projects is not enough. And only a long-term plan will be able to overcome the obstacles. For the migration routes, however, a short-term solution is important so that as many eels as possible can overcome the obstacles. This is also the reason why the ESF helps juvenile eels (rock eels) on their way to fresh water through restocking initiatives. Fishermen are paid to increase the number of returning silver eels. On the way out to sea, when the eel encounters various adversities, its path is cleared with the help of trap-and-transfer programmes, also known as "eel over the dyke".
The Eel Stewardship Fund supports both phases in the short term: it helps during the restocking and catch & transport phases on the eels' migration routes. As a long-term solution, the ESF provides both knowledge and funding for eel conservation projects across Europe.
Source: esf.international
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