What you need to know and understand about the eel, Anguilla anguilla

Facts about eel (Anguilla anguilla)

• There is only one single stock of European eel
• Eel is a commercial species under the CFP and MSY objective
• Eels grow very old making management extremely challenging. Example: old adult eels we see now can be the result of parents potentially born in the 1970s!
• Eel cannot be farmed, all eels in aquaculture etc are wild eels taken as juveniles
• we cannot “enhance” spawning by other means than securing an increase of out-migrating adult eels
• One eel saved in one river does not automatically mean a return of 100 more to same river – the eels may increase somewhere else.

Download and read CCB eel briefing 2017 – the facts about eel