Lies, dam(!) lies, and the ESB’s silver eel Trap and Transport models Trap and Transport (T&T) is where eels are captured and moved around dams and other obstacles. The ESB runs a T&T programme for […]
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Category: Silver eels
Reports of a major silver eel kill on the River Erne
There have been reports this week of a major silver eel kill on the River Erne in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. It is understood that these eels were killed trying to pass the hydroelectric stations on […]
Dead and dying silver eels downstream of Ardnacrusha
The European eel is a critically endangered species. However, thousands are killed passing Ardnacrusha hydroelectric station on the Lower River Shannon each year, despite a ‘trap and transport’ scheme operated by the ESB. This is a […]
Monitoring silver eel turbine passage mortalities on the Lower Shannon
We are currently assessing silver eel turbine passage mortality at Ardnacrusha hydroelectric station on the Lower River Shannon. Silver eels are adult maturing eels on their spawning migration to the Sargasso Sea after spending up to 20 years (or […]
Endoparasites affect eel swimming behaviour
A new paper entitled ‘Relationship between European eel Anguilla anguilla infection with non-native parasites and swimming behaviour on encountering accelerating flow‘ has just been published in the Journal of Fish Biology by Lynda Newbold et al. It examines […]
Review of ESB’s eel trap and transport programmes
To mitigate for the impacts of their hydropower dams, the ESB runs a number of ‘trap and transport’ schemes for upstream migrating juvenile eels (elvers), and downstream migrating silver eels. However, in this article we […]
Inadequate silver eel mitigation on the Shannon
The River Shannon has a large hydroelectric scheme in its lower reaches, and there are no bypasses for silver eels migrating downstream (or indeed for other fish such as salmon kelts and smolts). The ESB […]
Whales Preying on Eels in Deep Atlantic Ocean
When the threatened European eels cross the Atlantic Ocean to get to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, they swim in deep water. But this does not protect them from predators, researchers from the University of […]
Behaviour of stocked and wild eels during migration
Behaviour of stocked and naturally recruited European eels during migration – Stocked European eels also find their way towards Sargasso Sea An objection to the stocking of translocated eels as a management measure for the […]
Is the ESB doing enough to help silver eels on the Shannon?
A press release from Inland Fisheries Ireland below indicates that they are satisfied with current silver eel mitigation measures used on the River Shannon. The current approach attempts to capture outmigrating silver eels in coghill […]
European Eel Foundation 