| Summary: | In 2016, ICES confirmed again that the status of the stock of European eel remains critical and that recruitment of glass and yellow eels is very low. The perception of the stock status has not changed over the last decade. As a result, ICES advises that "when the precautionary approach is applied for European eel, all anthropogenic impacts (e.g. recreational and commercial fishing on all stages, hydropower, pumping stations, and pollution) decreasing production and escapement of silver eels should be reduced to, or kept as close to, zero as possible”. Given the critical state of the stock, European eel was listed both in CITES Annex II and the IUCN list of endangered species. At the EU level, a specific Regulation was adopted in 2007 to ensure the recovery of the stock. According to this Regulation, Member States (MS) have to establish and implement eel management plans for their river basins that constitute significant eel habitats. The plans must be able to achieve the escapement to the sea of at least 40% of the adult stock biomass that would have escaped without human influence. For marine waters seaward from the area covered by the MS’ Eel Management Plans (EMPs), a 50% reduction in catches or effort compared to the 2004–2006 average should be achieved. While it is MS' obligation to address the anthropogenic impacts on eels in the waters covered by their national EMPs, the request ICES received from the EU Commission for this ad hoc request states that the measures to be taken in the marine waters fall under the exclusive competence of the EU. The main objective of 2013 Common Fisheries Policy is to ensure the sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources, including diadromous species during the marine part of their life cycle. For analytical stocks this means to achieve F MSY by 2020 at the latest, while for data limited stocks the precautionary approach should be followed.
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