Under the requirements of the following UK eel management plan the eel fishery is about to be closed. The plan is designed to protect brown eel stocks in UK inland waters. Leisure Minister Nelson McCausland informed that he will be issuing Lough Erne eel fishermen with extensions to their permits allowing them to fish through much of the 2009 season, following delays in the final decision by the EU.
According McCausland clarification from DEFRA is awaited and the commission over the delays in approving the UK’s eel management plans. He added that he is committed to the implementation of measures to assist in the conservation of the European eel stock. He said he wants that eel fishermen in Northern Ireland be allowed to continue to fish until such times as the European Commission gives final approval to the measures we have proposed.
It is said that the department has signed up to new EU plans to require commercial fishing for brown eels to cease and be replaced by a conservation fishery for silver eels in an effort to rebuild stocks in the longer term. DCAL figure showed that the European eel stock has been in rapid decline since around 1980 and shows no sign of recovery. It is also told that collaborative scientific work in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has suggested that in order to comply with the regulation, a cessation of commercial fishing for eel in the trans-boundary Erne catchment is necessary.
