Challenges for the assessment of the UK stock of European eel, Anguilla anguilla ...

• Main Authors: Walker, Alan, Potter, Ted, Russell, Ian
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2008 - Theme session N 2024
• Subjects: Fisheries and aquaculture; Pressures, impacts, conservation, and management; Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25244086.v1; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Challenges_for_the_assessment_of_the_UK_stock_of_European_eel_Anguilla_anguilla/25244086/1

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.The European eel stock is in a severely depleted state, and ICES continues to advise that it is outside safe biological limits. The European Commission's Eel Recovery Plan aims to restore the spawning stock, and a management target has been set as 40% of historic, potential silver eel emigration. Responsibility for selecting and effecting management actions has been devolved to Member States. A pseudo-stock/recruitment relationship has been hypothesized for the stock as a whole. However, our present inability to link maturing silver eel escapement with subsequent recruitment at management units relevant to national boundaries (e.g. river basins or districts), and the limited distribution of fisheries around the UK, precludes the use of conventional stock assessment methods. Furthermore, there is a paucity of historic and even recent data on eel populations in nearly all UK rivers, from which we could directly set management targets, assess ...