Time runs out for the Thames eel
Once plentiful eel disappears from London’s river
By Paul Eccleston, Jan 21st 2010 The eel is fast disappearing from London’s River Thames and may soon be gone completely. New research by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) shows that numbers have crashed by 97 per cent in the past five years. In 2005 1500 eels were caught in traps in the river’s tributaries but last year the number plummeted to just 50. The figures are in line with the general decline of the European eel (Anguilla Anguilla) across Europe and which it has seen it placed in the IUCN Red List as a critically endangered species – one step away from extinct in the wild. The eel was once so plentiful in the Thames that it became a staple food for the city’s East End poor because it was cheap and easy to catch. Along with equally cheap mashed potato and green liquor – the water residue from stewed eels – jellied eels became a traditional food of London’s cockneys. The latest figures were revealed by the ZSL’s annual Tidal Thames Conservation Project which traps and counts eels before freeing them. It seems to confirm fears by conservationists that the eel is failing to return to the river in sufficient numbers to guarantee future populations. … Matthew Gollock, ZSL’s Tidal Thames Conservation Project Manager, said: “Eels are mysterious creatures at the best of times but we are very concerned about the rapid disappearance of the species in the Thames. … ”Time appears to be running out for eels in the River Thames and this could have a domino effect on other species in the Thames,” Dr Gollock said. …
