"Monitoring of St. Lawrence River hydro dams reveals
that 46 percent of adult eels exit the turbines dead. "
-- Ministry of Natural Resources, Province of Ontario, Canada. 2004.
Great Blue Heron and Herring Gull, Sebasticook River,
Benton Falls, Maine. Sunrise, 20 October 2004. Photo by Douglas Harold Watts.
Only
35 years ago, Great Blue Heron and Bald Eagles were extinct from the Sebasticook
River and nearly extinct in the United States of America.
They were nearly
extinct because DDT killed them and prevented them from giving birth to
live babies.
Even though the Bald Eagle is the symbol of our nation,
they were relentlessly shot and killed and poisoned for decades until they
nearly disappeared from the surface of our planet.
For decades and decades
this killing went on ... and nobody said or did anything.
Bald Eagles
and Great Blue Heron weren't considered important enough to save.
NEXT
Excerpt
From the Quebec Declaration of Concern -- "Worldwide Decline of Eels
Necessitates Immediate Action" -- 2003 International Eel Symposium,
held in conjunction with the 2003 American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting,
Quebec,Canada. 14 August, 2003:
"The steep decline in populations of eels endangers the future
of these legendary fish. With less than 1 percent of major juvenile resources
remaining, precautionary efforts must be taken immediately to sustain these
stocks. In recent decades, juvenile abundance has declined dramatically;
by 99 percent for the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and by 80
percent for the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica). Recruitment of
American eel (Anguilla rostrata) to Lake Ontario, near the species'
northern limit, has virtually ceased.
Eels, which depend on freshwater and estuarine habitats for their juvenile
growth phase, anthropogenic impacts (e.g. pollution, habitat loss and
migration barriers, fisheries) are considerable and may well have beeninstrumental
in prompting these declines. Loss of eel resources will represent a loss
of biodiversity but will also have considerable impact on socioeconomics
of rural areas, where eel fishing still constitutes a cultural tradition.
Research is underway to develop a comprehensive and effective restoration
plan. This, however, will require time. The urgent concern is that the rate
of decline necessitates swifter protective measures. As scientists in eel
biology from 18 countries assembled at the International Eel Symposium 2003
organized in conjunction with the 2003 American Fisheries Society Annual
Meeting in Quebec, Canada, we unanimously agree that we must raise an urgent
alarm now. With less than 1 percent of juvenile resources remaining for
major populations, time is running out. Precautionary action (e.g., curtailing
exploitation, safeguarding migration routes and wetlands, improving access
to lost habitats) can and must be taken immediately by all parties involved
and, if necessary, independently of each other. Otherwise opportunities
to protect these species and study their biology and the cause of their
decline will fade along with the stocks."
The information below is from Maryland Department of Natural Resources,
MBSS Newsletter March 1999, Volume 6, Number 1.
"The most dramatic
example of the decline of American eel abundance is dam construction on
the Susquehanna River. Prior to the completion of Conowingo and three other
mainstem dams in the 1920's, eels were common throughout the Susquehanna
basin and were popular with anglers. To estimate the number of eels lost
as a result of construction of Conowingo Dam, we used MBSS data on American
eels from the Lower Susquehanna basin and extrapolated it to the rest of
the basin above the dam. Our best conservative guess is that there are on
the order of 11 million fewer eels in the Susquehanna basin today than in
the 1920s.
The magnitude of this loss is corroborated by the decline in the eel weir
fishery in the Pennsylvania portion of the Susquehanna River. Before the
mainstem dams were constructed, the annual harvest of eels in the river
was nearly 1 million pounds. Since then, the annual harvest has been zero.
Given the longevity of eels in streams (up to 20 years or more) and their
large size, the loss of this species from streams above Conowingo Dam represents
a significant ecosystem-level impact. Because adult eels migrate to the
Sargasso Sea to spawn and die -- transporting their accumulated biomass
and nutrient load out of Chesapeake Bay -- the loss of eels has increased
nutrient loads in the basin and reduced them in the open ocean where they
are more appreciated."
On March 10, 2004 the American Eel Management Board of the Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) issued a statement recommending
the protection of American eel under the United States Endangered Species
Act. The statement reads in part:
"Canadian and US data show 2003 commercial landings are the lowest
on record since 1945 and there are indications of localized recruitment
failure in the Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River system. The International
Eel Symposium at the 2003 American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting reported
a worldwide decline of eel populations, including the Atlantic coast stock
of American eel ... The Commission also recommended that the US Fish and
Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
consider American eel in the Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River/Lake Champlain/Richelieu
River system as a candidate for listing as a Distinct Population Segment
under the Endangered Species Act. The Board also recommended that the USFWS
and NMFS consider designating the entire coastwide stock as a candidate
for listing under the ESA."
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