An Environment Agency led research team is close to understanding the spawning and migratory route of the critically endangered European Eel. The actual location of the eels’ breeding area has never been identified. Locating it could be a critical step in protecting the species.
Wild eels are being microchipped in a bid to bring them back from the brink of global extinction.
Numbers of glass eels returning to the UK have decreased by 95% in the past 40 years due to habitat loss and obstructions in waterways hindering their movements, according to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).
The trust blames “low-lying land reclamation, flood control measures - such as tidal flaps - and obsolete industrial structures like weirs” for destroying and preventing access to eels’ habitat.
Organisations team up to protect endangered eels
Conservation partnership teams with NRW to help protect eels in Merthyr.
Wales Environment Link (WEL) species champion initiative – partnership between Salmon & Trout Conservation Cymru (S&TC) and the South East Wales Rivers Trust – have teamed with Natural Resources Wales to help protect critically endangered eels in Merthyr.
