Dr Derek Evans and Warren Campbell of the Fisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems Branch (FAEB) in AFBI recently hosted Professor Carlos Fernández-Delgado and his Research Fellow Dr Ramone Indurain from the University of Cordoba in Spain on a fact finding and technology transfer mission.
Their visit was timed to coincide with the October lunar “dark” and the subsequent fishing of silver eels across Northern Ireland from both commercial and conservational fisheries.
The freshwater fisheries team within AFBI assess EU compliance rates for silver eel escapement at these fisheries, using a range of methods developed within FAEB. “The work on eels within Northern Ireland is well known across the European fisheries scientific community, with silver eel escapement monitoring on Lough Neagh a prime example” said Prof. Fernandez-Delgado. “It was with this in mind that we approached Dr Evans to see how AFBI could help us with developing novel survey methods for catching silver eels leaving Andalusian river basins and thus help us to produce more robust eel management plans for the region. To see the range of set ups across Lough Neagh and Lough Erne has been an extremely valuable education and over the coming years we will trial several of the methods introduced to us by Derek”.
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