SCOTLAND’S first eel summit is to be staged in Edinburgh in a bid to help conserve and understand the nation’s “forgotten fish”.
Specialists from all over the world will gather at Napier University on April 17 for the Scottish Eel Conference, which aims to put the critically endangered European eel in the spotlight.
Organised by the Forth Rivers Trust, the conference is one of three new initiatives for 2020 designed to help save the fish described as “the world’s most trafficked animal”.
Two further projects focusing on eels within Scotland will run throughout the year.
Included on the World Wildlife Foundation’s Top Ten Traded Species, the European eel has seen numbers decline by 95% across the continent in the past 30 years due to poaching and overfishing to supply markets in Asia.
Other threats include water management, water pollution, migration barriers at sluices and pumps, new parasites and diseases, predation from seabirds and possibly climate change.
The conference will bring policy makers and leading professionals together at Napier’s Craiglockhart Campus to discuss current conservation efforts and the leading science.
Talks will focus on the incredible journey of the eel from their breeding place in the Sargasso sea, in the Western Atlantic between the Azores and the Caribbean, to Europe; threats facing the fish; and the work people across the world are doing to preserve eel species.
The summit’s aim will be to “engage with conservation groups, government organisations and the public across Scotland and further and show the diverse effort and opportunities to save the eel”.
Jack Wootton, the Trust’s Aquatic Ecologist, who will lead the conference, said: “This mysterious animal still holds many secrets and collective efforts are helping to unveil some of the answers.
“From the enthusiasm generated by this event we aim to increase the efforts to conserve and understand eels in Scotland as well as diversify funding opportunities for these projects.
“We welcome anyone with an interest in this fascinating animal to join us in Edinburgh on the 17th of April.
“This is a unique opportunity to be involved in the first eel conference in Scotland and shape the conservation of the species.”
The Scottish Eel Conference, part of the Scottish-Government-funded “RiverLife: Almond and Avon” project, is one of three eel initiatives being developed by the Firth Rivers Trust this year.
Running throughout 2020, The Scottish Eel Project will establish population and abundance data across two rivers, the River Leven in Fife and the Midlothian Esks, for the European eel in Scotland, and to increase the understanding of how eels live within our waters.
Also running until December 2020, The Forgotten Fish Project uses traditional methods of conservation to tackle current issues affecting the European eel and lessen human effects on the species.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here