Dr. Anthony James KettleState University New York Oswego, USA, kettle@oswego.edu |
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The Decline of the European Eel: Climate Change or Anthropogenic Impact |
| Since the early 1980’s eel recruitment, as assessed by glass eel catches in rivers across Europe, has decreased by 95–99%, and catches of the adult eels have also decreased drasti-cally. The reason is not clear but a number of possible factors have been hypothesized: overfishing, organic chemical poisoning, parasitism, loss of habitat, and changes in ocean circulation due to climate change. Continental eel populations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have been affected so that a large scale phenomenon impacting their common spawning migration to and from the Sargasso Sea seems likely. The presentation starts with the assumption that the decline of the eel populations was due to changes in ocean circula-tion associated with climate change. However, the weight of evidence – fishing statistics, archaeozoology, hydrological data, bioenergetic considerations – points to a very different conclusion. |
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Ort |
| 26.11.2009 15:00 Uhr Großer Hörsaal |
© IGB |