A user-friendly tool to assess management plans for European eel fishery and conservation

• Published in: Environmental Modelling & Software
• Main Authors: Schiavina, Marcello, Bevacqua, Daniele, Melià, Paco, Crivelli, Alain J., Gatto, Marino, De Leo, Giulio A.
• Other Authors: Politecnico di Milano Milan (POLIMI), Dipartimento di Bioscienze, University of Parma = Università degli studi di Parma Parme, Italie, Unité de recherche Plantes et Systèmes de Culture Horticoles (PSH), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Sciences, Partenaires INRAE, Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, Stanford University, FEDER Program; Region PACA (France); Region Languedoc-Roussillon (France); Agence de l'eau (France)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: Anguilla anguilla; Sustainable fisheries; Demographic models; Eel management plans; European regulation; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; [SDE]Environmental Sciences
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02631363; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.10.008

International audience The European eel Regulation EC 1100/2007 establishes measures to recover the European eel stock. The Regulation requires Member States to guarantee a spawner escapement >= 40% of pristine levels by reducing eel mortality. The complexity and plasticity of eel life history make it difficult to assess the effectiveness of alternative management options, and tools allowing decision makers and fishermen to quickly assess the effectiveness of proposed management scenarios are urgently needed. We used state-of-the-art knowledge to develop a user-friendly simulation software allowing users to evaluate if current management policies meet the conservation target and evaluate the expected performances (spawner escapement and fishing yield) of alternative management scenarios. The software relies upon a demographic model explicitly accounting for the most relevant features of eel demography and has default settings for specific geographical areas and water systems. We demonstrate the software by exploring a variety of management plans in three European water systems.