European Eels in Minster Marshes endangered by Sealink Project

The BBC recently covered European Eels in the marshes (article in press article section).

In 2014 the European Eel was listed on the IUCN red list of threatened species. They can be found in the River Stour and marshland ditches

Eels used to be the ubiquitous food in the Middle ages in England. They are still eaten today hence the decline, one reason is that East-Asian entrepreneurs are involved in a big illegal business literally scooping up the glass-eels in the Atlantic, while these are happily trying to reach the brackish waters of the estuaries and rivers in Europe.  Another reason is that these estuaries and rivers are not very healthy: sewage pollution and physical barriers to migration such as hydroelectric dams are part of the explanation.

After spawning in the Saragossa Sea they drift for 300-days back to the Marshes instinctively where they might live for 5–90 years (on average 10 – 15 years), until they become sexually mature, their flanks become silver, and their bellies fat and white. They then start their migration back to the Saragossa to spawn and die.