The European eel is now considered Critically Endangered due to the drop in the number of elvers entering our rivers. It is a wonderful and iconic species with a life cycle that encompasses a 10,000 km round trip from the Sargasso Sea. Despite being such a long distance traveller eels aren’t particularly good swimmers.
Volunteers from Kingston University, with the support of ZSL, have been monitoring the number of elvers migrating up the Hogsmill and are yet to find any. A possible reason for this is that they can’t get past the steep smooth concrete channel under the Historic Clattern Bridge.
Tim Longstaff of the Wandle Trust said:
“By adding special tiles to the riverbed that give the eels something to crawl through we hope that we can help them enter the Hogsmill. If we can open up all of London’s rivers more eels will grow to maturity in London meaning more will be able to swim back to the Sargasso Sea to breed.”
Dave Harvey of the TAC said:
“It’s great to be able to contribute to helping conserve the eel by doing this work on the Hogsmill. We have been monitoring Eel migration at Molesey for 2 years and to know that their passage into this important Thames tributary has now been improved is fantastic news.”
For the full story and to check on the excellent work done by the Thames Anglers’ Conservancy and their colleagues visit their website HERE
