in search of the critically endangered european eel

This summer, post MSc thesis hand in, my friend Claire and I decided to go on an adventure. The aim of the adventure was to track down the European Eel: a critically endangered species.

Photograph of a European eel by Claire Buchan 2014.

The European eel is rather impressive: it migrates from freshwater habitats in Europe to the Sargasso sea for reproduction. Very little is actually known about the migration but the eggs are thought to drift from the Sargaso towards Europe where they develop into their glass form (clear in colour). These develop into elvers, who then migrate upstream to develop into their adult form called yellow eels. It is not until they are preparing for migration that they develop into their silver form. Eels are however faced with a range of threats - habitat loss, pollution, over fishing - meaning their numbers have fallen over the past few decades. Their fascinating life history and the importance of recording the presence of this species made mine and Claires mission of locating an eel an especially exciting task.

So off we went one warm summers day, nets in hand, waders and wellys in tow, on a quest: we were to walk down the river from Kennal Vale to Devichoys Wood, both Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserves that eels had been caught before. Unfortunately little did we realise, that walking straight down a river from point A to B is actually much harder than one would initially think: rivers go through peoples gardens, under bridges and through fences! So we soon had to abandon plan A and proceed swiftly to plan B: head straight to Devichoys Wood. Here we could wonder up and down the river with ease, scooping our nets in the hope that we would discover what we were looking for. Late in the afternoon we were both met with suprise as Claire scooped her net and found a beautifully tiny eel looking back up at her! The total count of the day was 3 eels: back into the river the eels happily went and off we went, muddy waders and wellys, but mission accomplished!