Md. dams to get new pathways for eels

AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/1/06 | Kristen Wyatt - ap

[NormsRevenge]

MILLINGTON, Md. - American eels are crafty fish, able to slither up rocks and around branches in just a tiny bit of water. But it turns out they're not the strongest swimmers — and dams throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed may be blocking their natural migration patterns and contributing to a sharp population decline.

Maryland biologists are hoping to boost the fortunes of the American eel, which is found across the Atlantic coast but is most abundant in the Chesapeake and its tributaries.

Even in the Chesapeake, though, eels aren't doing so great. Scientists believe they're being stymied in part by dams, which stop eels from coming upstream as juveniles from the ocean and spending most of their lives in freshwater tributaries.

The effect of dams on fish has long been acknowledged, and 16 of Maryland's 1,000 dams have been modified to allow fish to pass through so they can spawn. Problem is, biologists in recent years have concluded that what works for fish such as shad or herring doesn't work for eels. Eels prefer slower-moving water, migrating at night along the sides of rivers, and because they're only about 4 inches long when they head upstream, few of them can power their way through traditional fish passages.

"They can't swim in really heavy currents. They're looking for slow water," said Steve Minkkinen, a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Maryland Fishery office.

Minkkinen and four other state biologists built a passageway just for eels Tuesday on a 10-foot-high dam at Unicorn Lake in Queen Anne's County. The eelway is the first built in Maryland, though they're common in New England.

It's a pretty low-tech device. Minkkinen took a length of black plastic pipe often placed under roads. Plastic netting was glued to the bottom — eels need something to crawl on for traction, not the metal sides of a fish passage — and a trickle of water was pumped down it, enough to keep the netting wet but not so much the juvenile eels would be swept away.

The tube was screwed together and placed on top of an existing fish chute with a faster water flow, with the top dumping into the lake. Eelways cost only about $2,000 for small dams — much less than some fish passages — and biologists hope they'll open more habitat to American eels.

The eel population decline is dire. Though about 50 Maryland watermen still make a living off eels, catching 300,000 pounds last year for sale to restaurants abroad, the population is believed to be far below historical levels.

Minkkinen said that before the Conowingo Dam was built in 1928, watermen in New York's Finger Lakes region harvested a million pounds of eels a year. Now the entire eel population north of the dam has vanished, he said.

"Coastwide, eelers have declined because the population has declined," said Keith Whiteford, a biologist for Maryland's Department of Natural Resources.

It's not known exactly how far down the America eel population is. However, the national eel harvest was less than a million pounds last year; in the mid-1970s, catches were about 3.5 million pounds. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is considering naming the American eel an endangered species, though a final determination isn't due until later this summer.

Dams aren't likely the sole cause of the decline, said Steve Gephardt, an eel expert at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. Gephardt advises the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on the American eel and said that the era of widespread dam-building is over, so something else must be playing a role in the recent decline of eels.

But building eelways on dams is still a good idea, Gephardt said.

"We know over time that dams have decreased the number of eels," he said. "They can wiggle around a lot of stuff. They can do a lot of tricks, but in fact they don't swim that well. So you have to think like an eel, and the fishways we were building weren't doing that."

The Fisheries Commission estimated that 84 percent of upstream habitat has become unreachable for eels.

It will probably take years for the eelways to help. The fish don't reach sexual maturity for eight to 24 years, and they only spawn once, according to the Fisheries Commission, so detriments in the population can take decades to become apparent.

Minkkinen hopes low-tech assistance like a plastic pipe and a slow trickle of water can help turn around the population of a species most people don't like because of its snakelike appearance. He pointed out that eels are important food sources for other fish and birds of prey, plus they play a role in mussel reproduction because mussel larvae attach to eels. In rivers that no longer have eels, the mussels are gone, too.

"It's a species that hasn't been considered much, unfortunately," he said. "But they're important ecologically. Right now eels can't get into a lot of their habitat, so let's open up as much habitat to them as possible."

[NormsRevenge]

In an effort to help the eels move up stream, an eelway has been installed by the fish and wildlife service as shown Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006, in Millington, Md., at the dam where the Chester River empties into Unicorn Lake. The American eel population is in sharp decline _ and dams may be to blame. Eels can't get past them to get upstream and spawn, and lifts built for fish spawning don't work for eels. Maryland biologists started work on special passageways for eels Tuesday with construction of the first of 10 planned 'eelways' on state dams. (AP Photo/Kathleen Lange)

[NormsRevenge]

NJ - State Record American Eel Caught

[Hilltop]

I think Springsteen covered this song.

Eel, good gawd, what is it good for, absolutely nothing. Say it again.

[NormsRevenge]

Maryland DNR Fisheries,

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/education/eel/eel.html American Eel - Anguilla rostrata

American eels are a popular bait for crabbing and fishing. You can fish for eels with any kind of cut bait. Although few people in the United States eat them, eels are also a popular food in Europe and Japan. As a result, eel fishing is an important commercial fishery.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Mmmmmm. Eels.

Blimey. I've come over all peckish.

[Hilltop]

I Eel your pain.

Where is Eel fishing an important commercial fishery?

In the United States?

Relay to me data regarding the economic impact on this nation.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Are they good eatin'? I love smoked eel!

[NormsRevenge]

here's a link with some info,, it is not a huge industry, pretty small in fact..

http://www.agmrc.org/agmrc/commodity/aquaculture/americaneel/americaneel.htm

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I know that in Ireland people get violent over eel poachers (From a Wall Street journal article). Its big business. Eel is a delicacy in Northern Europe.

A 10th century pope--whose name I have forgotten--had a reputation for eating well. Eel was one of his favorite dishes. He was reputed to have died after eating a meal of eel in bolsana wine. For this he earned himself an entry in Dante's Divine Comedy.

"There was joy among the eels
when death grabbed him by the heels
for he skinned em, and he sorted em
as thought death had country courted them"

(Dorthy Sayers translation)

[Jeff Chandler]

John Eelway.