Members of an environmental protection group have petitioned the U.S. federal government to include the American eel (Anguilla rostrate) in the list of endangered species in order to protect the fish from falling victim to overfishing.
The California-based Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy & Reliability (CESAR) is urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to declare the American eel as threatened to limit the ability of fishermen to pursue and catch the fish.
The environmental group, which was initially known as Council For Endangered Species Act Reliability during the submission of the petition, pointed out that eels have already lost as much as 80 percent of their natural habitat because of the construction of dams that impede their migration. The fish have also suffered from pressure brought on by commercial fishing.
CESAR members also said that population of American eels have dropped "catastrophically," similar to other species of eels in different parts of the world.
Rob Roy Ramey, CESAR's science adviser, said that the eel species has experienced a significant decline without enough regulatory oversight. He said that because of the fish's slimy and strange-looking appearance, they are not viewed as fuzzy, warm or charismatic creatures. He also called them the passenger pigeon of the time.
FWS spokesman Steven Shepard said that the agency will likely release a decision whether to include the American eels in the endangered species list by the end of September.
The FWS decision is expected to come as demand for baby eel supplies, known as elvers, continues to increase.
In Maine, which is considered to be the most lucrative market for eel fishery in the United States, elvers are valued at over $2,100 for a pound in 2015. This is a significant increase from the $100 price the elvers fetched for every pound in 2009.
Fishermen typically sold elvers to Asian aquaculture firms, who raise the fish to maturity in order to use them as food such as sushi.
American eels are endemic to an area of the ocean that stretches from Greenland in the north to Venezuela in the south. The fish traditionally hatch their elvers in the Sargasso Sea, and they are a favorite catch of commercial fishermen in several states located in the East Coast.
The value of the eels rarely reached beyond $3 million annually from 1950 to 2010. It suddenly ballooned, however, to over $40 million in 2012, thanks in large part to the elver fishery in Maine.
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region | Flickr
