Endangered Species Act Protection
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American eels begin their lives as eggs hatching in the Sargasso Sea, a 2-million-square-mile warm-water lens in the North Atlantic between the West Indies and the Azores. They take years to reach freshwater streams where they mature, and then they return to their Sargasso Sea birth waters to spawn and die. They are the only species of freshwater eels in the Western Hemisphere.
Eels have been a part of the human diet, especially in Europe and Asia, for hundreds and even thousands of years. European eels are facing extinction; their population has crashed over the last 20 years, possibly as much as 99 percent. American eels, too, have been especially impacted by dams and other obstructions in rivers, hydropower plants, and especially overfishing.
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Glass eels fetch a high price on the Asian market, and this young life phase of American eels has been heavily harvested in the United States during the past 30 years or more. In addition, some adults that have made the trip upstream and have lived long enough to mature are caught and killed in hydropower turbines on their downstream swim to the ocean. It is not known how or why American eels go to certain streams for their long maturing period. We do know that over 20 percent of female spawning eels have come from Canadian waters, and those waters are now experiencing a serious crash in numbers of yellow eels. A decline in one area such as this affects the entire population. American eel populations are already in decline and the eels could become scarce and could even disappear if current trends continue.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service agreed in September 2004 to review the status of the American eel at the request of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in light of an apparent decline in the commercial eel harvest. In December 2004, the two Services announced their intention to consider extending Endangered Species Act protection to the American eel.
AMERICAN EEL NEWS RELEASES
- January 30, 2007 — Endangered Species Act protection for American eel not needed
- December 21, 2005 — Eel experts home in on threats
- July 6, 2005 — Wildlife agencies to initiate status review of the American eel
- December 16, 2004 — American eel may need protection
THE QUESTION OF ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROTECTION
- Downloadable images of the American eel
- Questions and Answers about the American eel 12-month finding
12-Month Finding on a Petition To List the American eel as Threatened or Endangered ( Federal Register Notice)- References, 12-month finding on the American eel
- American eel status review workshops
- Progress Report: The American Eel Status Review
- 90-Day Finding on a Petition To List the American Eel as Threatened or Endangered (Federal Register notice)
- Questions and answers about the American eel 90-day finding
- Petition to list the American eel as an endangered species — a petition to list the American eel as an endangered species
MORE INFORMATION
- Facts about the American eel
- Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Eel, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
- Information on threatened and endangered species and the Service's endangered species program
THE AMERICAN EEL IN LOCALITIES ALONG THE EAST COAST
- Fish Facts - American Eel (Connecticut River Coordinator's Office)
- Connecticut River American Eels (Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Commission)
- American Eel Management (Connecticut River Coordinator's Office)
- American Eel Habitat in the Gulf of Maine
- American Eel Habitat Model-Gulf of Maine Program
LINKS TO NON-FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE SITES
- American eels: Restoring a Vanishing Resource in the Gulf of Maine
- American Eel (Chesapeake Bay)
- Species Information — American Eel (Chesapeake Bay)
- American eel species profile, Biological Report 82, Aug. 1987
- Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission
- Great Lakes Fishery Commission
- NOAA Fisheries Service
- "Where have all the eels gone?" from Gulf of Maine Times, Summer 2005
- "The Incredible Journey of the American Eel" from West Virginia Wildlife, Fall 2006