TAC and quota review 2023 – A government update on eel issues

A new release of silver eels in the Mediterranean Sea with the prud’homie of Valras plage

On Monday 19th of December, the CPMR Occitania organised a release of silver eels with the participation of fishermen from the Valras plage prud’homie and the Aguirrebarrena company for the collection and transport of 944 kg of eels. The eels collected in the Vendres sector were released at the mouth of the river Aude to

No ban on eel fishing in 2023

Although France agrees with the scientists’ conclusion on eel stock, it is opposed, together with eight Member States, to the quasi-ban on eel fishing as proposed by the European Commission. The new regulation will be highly regionalised and will only come into effect from March 2023. The State Secretary for the Sea has thus obtained

European Fisheries Response to the European Commission’s Eel Proposal.

For a field management of eel, not a management in slippers!

President of the National Committee for marine fisheries and marine fish farming (CNPMEM), Olivier Le Nézet, calls for the withdrawal of this proposal (see News: Position of the European Commission on the European eel – COM(2022) 559 final) by the European Commissioner in charge of the eel issue, following the dialogue of the deaf between

New eel release by the regional committee of maritime fisheries of Occitania in the Mediterranean

On Thursday 1st December, the Comité Régional des Pêches d’Occitanie organised an eel release with the participation of the professional fishermen of the Ayrole pond and the company Aguirrebarrena for the transport of the 1,180 kg of eels caught. Below are some pictures of the main phases of the operation. The eels were then released

A very promising opening of the glass eel fishing season on the River Adour at the end of November 2022.

A very promising opening for hand sieve fishing on the River Adour. Significant catches can be made in turbid water, even during the day, with a hand sieve, and this shows a very promising start of the fishing season on this river. The video opposite shows a professionnal fisherman using a hand sieve from his

Release of 865 kg of eels at Marseillan Plage

On Tuesday 22 November 2022, the Comité Régional des Pêches d’Occitanie (Occitania Regional Fisheries Committee), together with the company Aguirrebarrena and the consultancy firm SEANO, collected 865 kg of eels from 6 volunteer professional fishermen. The eels were then released on the beach at Marseillan (Hérault department) in order to avoid any obstacles to their

Small eels and elvers instead of shrimps in the Gironde

This professional fisherman in Gironde was surprised to find many small eels and eels in his shrimp traps: further proof that the resource seems to be slowly recovering. https://anguilleresponsable.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/VIDEO-2022-11-21-11-37-38.mp4https://anguilleresponsable.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/VIDEO-2022-11-21-11-37-19.mp4

Silver eels tracked to the Sargasso Sea

On 26 August 2022, scientist R.M. Wright and her team published in the journal Nature (Scientific reports) the first results of Argos tagging of European eels captured in the rivers of the Azores and released near these islands . Initial work undertaken as part of the EELIAD (European Eels in the Atlantic: Assessment of Their