The Swedish Board of Fisheries has decided on new tough measures to protect the waning eel, including a total fishing ban along the west coast in 2012, and increased minimum length in the Baltic Sea and freshwater areas.
A study published recently by the agency found that eel removal from Swedish waters had gone down by almost 30 percent since a first set of restrictions was introduced in 2007, but in order to reach the nation’s short-term goal, catches have to be reduced by another 32 percent by 2013, the Board now says.
On the European level, EU Fisheries Ministers two years ago called for the Member States to submit national management plans for the dwindling eel stocks by the end of 2008. The pronounced goal in the regulation is that 40 per cent of the eel in EU waters will be able to return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.
Sweden had already enforced a partial ban on eel fishing on 1 May, 2007. The only exception was made for professional fishermen with special licenses, the minimum requirement for obtaining one being that the fisherman had caught an average of 400 kilos of eel annually in 2003-2005. Close to 400 licenses were granted, while the number of eel fishermen has dwindled to 388 today.
The bad state of the eel in Swedish water had then been obvious for many years. Millions of eel migrated up the Göta Älv river (connects to the Skagerrak at Göteborg) in the 1950’s – in 2008 some 100 did so, according to the Board of Fisheries. Fifty years ago tens of thousands were found in the Nyköpingsån river south of Stockholm on the Baltic Coast – in 2008 about ten.
It should also be noted that for three straight years, Swedish scientists trawling the Skagerrak and the Kattegat have found no glass eel at all. The glass eel phase is the second stage of the severely threatened species’ evolution, after the larvae has come drifting to coastal waters on its long journey from the Sargasso Sea.
The fishing of yellow eel – the third stage in the evolution – will now be phased out along the west coast, with a total ban in 2012.
The measures will affect almost 90 professional, licensed fishermen. Board of Fisheries Director-General Axel Wenblad said his agency is trying to find ways to compensate them, but stressed that improving the stock through these restrictions will still save jobs for the majority of Swedish eel fishermen.
For eel in the Baltic and freshwater areas, the minimum length will be raised from 65 to 70 centimetres.