Saving Seafood

Growing consumption of the American eel may lead to it being critically endangered, study finds

March 11, 2025 โ€” High demand for eel combined with a decline in stock have resulted in soaring prices for this food item, which, in many cultures, is considered a delicacy. This has fueled concern globally as the prized food item is now being illegally traded from Europe to Asia.

Current research has focused on the critically endangered Anguilla anguilla, commonly known as the European eel. While its export outside the European Union is tightly regulated, large quantities of A. anguilla juveniles continue to be smuggled out of the EU to Asia where they are grown in eel farms until reaching a marketable size.

To investigate the prevalence and consumption of endangered eelsโ€”particularly the European eelโ€”a Yale-NUS College research team examined 327 individual eel products purchased across 86 retailers throughout Singapore. However, instead of the prevalence of the European eel, the team identified 70% of another species in the sampleโ€”Anguilla rostrata, commonly known as the American eel.

Read the full article at PHYS.org

States Schedule Public Hearings on American Eel Draft Addendum VII Draft Addendum Considers Changes to Commercial Yellow Eel Coastwide Harvest Cap

February 7, 2024 โ€” The majority of Atlantic coastal states from New Hampshire through Virginia have scheduled hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum VII to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Eel. Draft Addendum VII considers management measures to reduce the commercial yellow eel coastwide harvest cap in response to the 2023 benchmark stock assessment, which found the stock remains depleted. The Draft Addendum also considers options to modify monitoring requirements based on recommendations from the stock assessment and Technical Committee. Some hearings will be conducted in-person, and some hearings will be conducted via webinar, or in a hybrid format. If your state does not hold a hearing, or you are unable to participate in your stateโ€™s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings. The public hearing details follow:

Date and Hearing Format
State/Agency
Contact
Tuesday, February 20
Webinar Hearing
6:00 โ€“ 8:00 p.m.
New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection
 
The webinar registration link is available here, and additional webinar instructions are below.  
Joe Cimino
609.748.2063
 
 
Tuesday, February 27
Webinar Hearing
6:00 โ€“ 8:00 p.m.
 
New Hampshire Fish and Game Dept.
 
The webinar registration link is available here, and additional webinar instructions are below.  
Cheri Patterson
603.868.1095
Tuesday, March 5
Webinar Hearing
6:00 โ€“ 8:00 p.m.
 
New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation
 
The webinar registration link is available here, and additional webinar instructions are below.  
Jesse Hornstein631.444.0714
Thursday, March 7
In-person Hearing
5:00 โ€“ 7:00 p.m.
 
Virginia Marine Resources Commission
 
Hearing Location:
Virginia Marine Resources Commission
380 Fenwick Road, Building 96
Fort Monroe, VA, 23651
Shanna Madsen757.247.2247
Tuesday, March 12
In-person Hearing
6:00 โ€“ 8:00 p.m.
 
Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources
 
Hearing Location:
Tawes State Office Building, C-1
580 Taylor Avenue 
Annapolis, MD 21401
443.758.6547
 
 
 
Wednesday, March 13
Hybrid Hearing
6:00 โ€“ 8:00 p.m.
 
Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife
 
The webinar registration link is available here, and additional webinar instructions are below.
 
Hearing Location:
Dover Public Library
35 Loockerman Plaza 
Dover, DE 19901 
John Clark302.739.9108
The Board initiated Draft Addendum VII in August 2023 in response to findings of the 2023 Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report. The results of the assessment indicate the stock is at or near historically low levels due to a combination of historical overfishing, habitat loss, food web alterations, predation, turbine mortality, environmental changes, and toxins, contaminants, and disease. The assessment and peer review recommend reducing fishing mortality on the yellow eel life stage, while also recognizing that stock status is affected by other factors. The benchmark assessment proposed a new index-based tool for setting the yellow eel coastwide cap, since there is no statistical model for estimating the population size of American eel. This tool, called ITARGET, is an index-based method that needs only catch and abundance data from surveys to provide management advice on coastwide landings.
 
Draft Addendum VII also proposes options to reduce the requirements for biological sampling during young-of-year surveys conducted by the states, based on the stock assessment finding that individual length and pigment stage data are not useful for evaluating population trends. In addition, it considers changing the requirements for the collection of trip-level harvester data on catch per unit effort, and the policy used to determine if a state qualifies for de minimis status and can be exempt from implementing fishery regulations and monitoring requirements.
 
Webinar Instructions
In order to provide comment at any virtual or hybrid hearings, you will need to use your computer (voice over internet protocol) or download the GoToWebinar app for your phone. Those joining by phone only will be limited to listening to the presentation and will not be able to provide input. In those cases, you can send your comments to staff via email or US mail at any time during the public comment period. To attend the webinar in listen only mode, dial 562.247.8422 and enter access code 796-096-508. If your state does not hold a hearing, or you are unable to participate in your stateโ€™s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual or hybrid hearings.
 
For all virtual or hybrid hearings, please click HERE and select the hearing(s) you plan to attend from the dropdown menu to register for a public hearing webinar. Hearings will be held via GoToWebinar, and you can join the webinar from your computer, tablet or smartphone. If you are new to GoToWebinar, you can download the software by (clicking here) or via the App store under GoToWebinar. We recommend you register for the hearing well in advance of the hearing since GoToWebinar will provide you with a link to test your deviceโ€™s compatibility with the webinar. If you find your device is not compatible, please contact the Commission at info@asmfc.org (subject line: GoToWebinar help) and we will try to get you connected. We also strongly encourage participants to use the computer voice over internet protocol (VoIP) so you can ask questions and provide input at the hearing. 
 
Hearing Presentation Recording
For those who cannot attend any in-person or virtual hearings, the Commission will also post a recording of the hearing presentation on the Commissionโ€™s YouTube page so that stakeholders may watch the presentation and submit comment at any time during the comment process. This recording will be available by mid-February.
Submitting Comments
The Draft Addendum is available athttps://asmfc.org/files/Science/AmEelDraftAddendumVII_YellowEelCap_PublicComment_Feb2024.pdf or via the Commissionโ€™s website at http://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input. All those interested in the management of American eel are encouraged to provide input either by participating in public hearings, which may be conducted via webinar, or providing written comment. Public comment will be accepted until 11:59 PM (EST) on March 24, 2024 and should be sent to Caitlin Starks, Senior FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Yellow Eel Harvest Cap Draft Addendum).

The Utterly Engrossing Search for the Origin of Eels

September 27, 2022 โ€” Every three years, Reinhold Hanel boards a research ship and voyages to the only sea in the world thatโ€™s located in the middle of an ocean. The Sargasso, bounded by currents instead of land, is an egg-shaped expanse that takes up about two-thirds of the North Atlantic, looping around Bermuda and stretching east more than 1,000 kilometers. Dubbed the โ€œgolden floating rainforestโ€ thanks to the thick tangles of ocher-colored seaweed that blanket the waterโ€™s surface, the Sargasso is a slowly swirling sanctuary for over 270 marine species. And each year, the eels arrive.

The European eel and the American eelโ€”both considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Natureโ€”make this extraordinary migration. The Sargasso is the only place on Earth where they breed. The slithery creatures, some as long as 1.5 meters, arrive from Europe, North America, including parts of the Caribbean, and North Africa, including the Mediterranean Sea. Hanel, a fish biologist and director of the Thรผnen Institute of Fisheries Ecology in Bremerhaven, Germany, makes his own month-long migration here alongside a rotating cast of researchers, some of whom hope to solve mysteries that have long flummoxed marine biologists, anatomists, philosophers, and conservationists: What happens when these eels spawn in the wild? And what can be done to help the species recover from the impacts of habitat loss, pollution, overfishing, and hydropower? Scientists say that the answers could improve conservation. But, thus far, eels have kept most of their secrets to themselves.

The idea that eels have sex at all is a fairly modern notion. Ancient Egyptians associated eels with the sun god Atum and believed they sprang to life when the sun warmed the Nile. In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle proclaimed that eels spontaneously generated within โ€œthe entrails of the earthโ€ and that they didnโ€™t have genitals.

The no-genital theory held for generations. Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder asserted that eels rubbed against rocks and their dead skin โ€œscrapings come to life.โ€ Others credited eel provenance to everything from horsesโ€™ tails to dew drops on riverbanks. In medieval Europe, this presumed asexuality had real economic consequences and helped make the European eel a culturally important species, according to John Wyatt Greenlee, a medieval cartographic historian who wrote part of his dissertation on the subject. Frequent Christian holidays at the time required followers to adhere to church-sanctioned diets for much of the year. These prohibited adherents from eating โ€œuncleanโ€ animals or meat that came from carnal acts, which could incite, as Thomas Aquinas put it, โ€œan incentive to lust.โ€ Fish were the exception, Greenlee says, and eels, given their abundance and โ€œthe fact that they just sort of appear and that nobody can find their reproductive organs at all,โ€ appealed to anyone trying to avoid a sexy meal.

Read the full article at Smithsonian Magazines

These fish are critical to New England, and theyโ€™re disappearing

July 14, 2022 โ€” Hutchins, a habitat restoration biologist with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lives and works on Cape Ann. Along with a small group of volunteers, he monitors the baby eels migrating upstream at Mill Brook between spring and fall. In a year, sometimes theyโ€™ll document well over a thousand elvers.

Half a century ago, fishermen harvested millions of pounds of American eels annually up and down the Atlantic Coast. By 2013, however, researchers estimated the population had dropped by half.

Experts suspect overfishing and coastal development have played a role in the decline, along with eutrophication โ€” when nutrients from sewage and fertilizers choke the oxygen from ponds and streams.

Another fish fundamental to fresh and saltwater ecology is the river herring.

Alewives and bluebacks are migratory herring that range along the East Coast from Florida to Maine. Whereas eels are born in the ocean but live in freshwater, river herring live in coastal waters and only venture inland to spawn.

As with eel, river herring populations began to crash in the 1980s, coinciding with advances in commercial fishing techniques and new construction along the coast.

Massachusetts is home to about 3,000 dams, with many built in the 19th century for water power, reservoirs, or flood control.

โ€œA dam in a river is like a blocked artery; itโ€™s like a heart attack,โ€ said Robert Kearns, a climate resiliency specialist at the Charles River Watershed Association. โ€œIt degrades the water quality behind it; reduces the dissolved oxygen which fish rely on to breathe and to live โ€ฆ and creates a habitat thatโ€™s better for invasive species.โ€

Beyond commercial fishing, a report by the American Sportfishing Association found saltwater sport fishing generates over $500 million dollars a year in sales, wages, and taxes in Massachusetts.

But amid the reality of human-made climate change, the future of the herring and the eels, on which so much depends, remains very much in question.

Read the full story at WBUR

US Company Indicted for Illegally Smuggling Valuable Eels

May 4, 2022 โ€” The federal government has indicted a seafood distributor and eight of its employees and associates on charges of smuggling valuable eels.

The company, American Eel Depot of Totowa, New Jersey, is the biggest importer and wholesale distributor of eel meat in the country. The Justice Department said on April 29 that the defendants in the case conspired to unlawfully smuggle large numbers of baby European eels out of Europe to a factory in China.

Read the full story at U.S. News & World Report

 

ASMFC 2021 Fall Meeting Webinar Supplemental Materials Now Available

October 13, 2021 โ€” The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commissionโ€™s 2021 Fall Meeting Webinar are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021-fall-meeting-webinar for the following Boards/Committees (click on โ€œSupplementalโ€ following each relevant committee header to access the information). For ease of access, all supplemental meeting materials have been combined into one PDF โ€“ http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/2021FallMeeting/2021FallMeetingSupplementalCombined.pdf.

Below is the list of documents included in the supplemental materials.

American Lobster Management Board โ€“ Memo on Update on Development of Draft Addendum XXVII

Atlantic Herring Management Board โ€“ Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; Postponed Draft Addendum III

Tautog Management Board โ€“ Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; Preliminary Tautog Risk and Uncertainty Report; Law Enforcement Committee Review of Commercial Tagging Program

Shad & River Herring Management Board โ€“ Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; Technical Committee Recommendations on American Shad Habitat Plan Updates; Technical Committee Recommendations for Evaluating Bycatch Removals in Directed Mixed-stock Fisheries in State Waters; Update from U.S. Geological Survey Eastern Ecological Science Center on Alosine Science

Atlantic Menhaden Management Board โ€“ Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview; Plan Development Team Progress Report on Draft Addendum I to Amendment 3

Executive Committee โ€“ Draft Policy on (Guidelines for) Information Requests

Business Session โ€“ Draft 2022 Action Plan

Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board โ€“ Advisory Panel Comments on the Scope of Draft Amendment 7 Options; Draft Addendum VII to Amendment 6; Plan Development Team Memo on Quota Transfers; New Hampshire Comments on Quota Transfers

Horseshoe Crab Management Board โ€“ Horseshoe Crab Adaptive Resource Management Subcommittee & Delaware Bay Ecosystem Technical Committee Conference Call Summary; Fishery Management Plan Review for the 2020 Fishing Year

Spiny Dogfish Management Board โ€“ Revised Agenda and Meeting Overview

American Eel Management Board โ€“ Fishery Management Plan Review for the 2020 Fishing Year

ISFMP Policy Board โ€“ Harvest Control Rule for Bluefish, Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass(including Comparison of Options, HCR Infographs, and Peer Review Report of Recreational Fishery Models); Executive Committee Memo on Tasks to address Concerns with Conservation Equivalency

Webinar Information
Board meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning Monday, October 18 at 9 a.m. and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 4:45 p.m.) on Thursday, October 21. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. To register for the webinar go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/180425878123839504 (Webinar ID: 349-122-851).

Each day, the webinar will begin 30 minutes prior to the start of the first meeting so that people can troubleshoot any connectivity or audio issues they may encounter.  If you are having issues with the webinar (connecting to or audio related issues), please contact Chris Jacobs at 703.842.0790.

If you are joining the webinar but will not be using VoIP, you can also call in at  914.614.3221, access code 580-881-020. A PIN will be provided to you after joining the webinar; see webinar instructions for details on how to receive the PIN.

Public Comment Guidelines
With the intent of developing policies in the Commissionโ€™s procedures for public participation that result in a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings:

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the boardโ€™s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the board chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.

For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.

For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Boardโ€™s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.

In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).

  1. Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of the meeting (September 27) will be included in the briefing materials.
  2. Comments received by 5 PM on Tuesday, October 5 will be included in the supplemental materials.
  3. Comments received by 10 AM on Friday, October 15 will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting.

The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenterโ€™s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution.  As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail, fax, and email.

 

ASMFC Begins Preparations for American Eel Benchmark Stock Assessment

August 11, 2020 โ€” The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has begun work on the next American Eel Benchmark Stock Assessment and is requesting data from academia, member states, federal partners, participating jurisdictions and stakeholders. A data workshop has not been scheduled yet but is likely to occur in late 2020.

The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will improve the accuracy of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on catch per unit effort (young-of-the-year surveys, yellow eel surveys), biological samples (lengths, ages, stage data), and life history information (growth, maturity, natural mortality). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format with accompanying description of methods to Dr. Kristen Anstead, Stock Assessment Scientist, at kanstead@asmfc.org by October 1, 2020.

For more information about the assessments or the submission and presentation of materials, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

August/September 2018 issue of Fisheries Focus Now Available

October 1, 2018 โ€” The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The August/September 2018  issue of Fisheries Focus is now available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5bae9553FishFocusAugSept2018.pdf.

Upcoming Meetings

page 2

From the Executive Directorโ€™s Desk 

MRIPโ€™s Upgraded Fishing Effort Survey: A Significant Step Forward in Fisheries Science and Recreational Management

page 3

Species Profile

Horseshoe Crab

page 4

Essential Trawl Survey Receives Needed Boost

page 5

Fishery Management Actions

American Eel

Summer Flounder

Scup

Black Sea Bass

Bluefish

page 8

Science Highlight

Effects of the Biomedical Bleeding on the Behavior and Physiology of Horseshoe Crab

page 10

ACCSP Well Represented at AFS Annual Meeting

page 11

Proposed Management Actions

Summer Flounder

Scup

Black Sea Bass

Coastal Sharks

Cobia

page 12

In Memoriam
page 13

Comings & Goings

page 14

Employee of the Quarter Named

page 15

Past issues of Fisheries Focus can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/search/%20/%20/Fishery-Focus

The Eel Deal: This D.C. Restaurant Serves Up Eel From The Chesapeake

September 14, 2018 โ€” Eels are misunderstood. Theyโ€™re slimy, and look like snakesโ€”which makes it hard for some people to stomach the thought of eating one. But eel season is ramping up at one D.C. restaurant, where the chef serves eels caught in the Chesapeake Bay.

Despite appearances, eels are fish. They breathe through gills and move using two long finsโ€”one down their back, another along their bellies. The two fins meet to form a tail.

At seafood restaurant The Salt Line, chef Kyle Bailey is happy to offer eel to his customers.

โ€œTheyโ€™re available and I want that because I donโ€™t see them anywhere else in town, and I would love to be the restaurant that has something that nobody else has,โ€ Bailey says.

Baileyโ€™s eels are provided by Dock-to-Dish, a restaurant-supported fishery program in the Washington region. It allows chefs to trace the fish they get back to the dock they came from.

From Kent Island To The Salt Line

The source of Baileyโ€™s eels is Troy Wilkins, one of a couple dozen Maryland watermen who fish for the elusive, yet abundant creatures on a regular basis.

On a recent day, Wilkins sails near Kent Island in the Chesapeake. From the deck of his fishing boat, the Misty Tango, he reels in two-foot-long, cylindrical eel pots one by one.

Several pots come up nearly full. Roughly a dozen greenish-brown eels writhe around inside the pots before he dumps them into a holding tank. Some eels are big, about four or five pounds. Others are much smaller.

Read the full story at DCist

 

Greenpeace Japan: Eel sourcing โ€œlike a black boxโ€

June 27, 2018 โ€” Greenpeace Japan is highlighting the prevalence of illegally-sourced eel in Japanโ€™s supply chain and is calling for more traceability in advance of the midsummer day of the ox, a holiday celebrated by eating grilled eel. This year it falls on two days: 20 July and 1 August.

Greenpeace issued a report on 4 June that shows eels are at high risk from poaching and illegal transactions. The organization conducted a survey on eel procurement at major supermarkets, and found it was rare for the label attached to the grilled eel package to describe what kind of eel it is.

While there are four eels used for grilled eel โ€“ Japanese eel, European eel, American eel and bicolor eel โ€“ because grilled eel is a processed item, writing only โ€œeelโ€ is no problem in terms of rules. Although in 2013 the Fisheries Agency requested voluntary labeling of Japanese eel, few supermarkets do so. Akiko Tsuchiya of Greenpeace Japan said retailers should be required to label what species is contained in all boxes of grilled eel.

For its report, Greenpeace bought eel at the 18 shops and had an external DNA laboratory conduct genetic testing. The organization said the most confusion was between Japanese and American eel. The tests found one product labeled as grilled Japanese eel was actually American eel. Greenpeace said that it is proof that the supply chain from the glass eels to the shop is wrapped in darkness.

Read the full story at Seafood Source