Public Hearing Wednesday on a Draft Addendum to the American Eel Interstate Fishery Management Plan
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold a hybrid public hearing Wednesday evening to gather input on Draft Addendum VII to American Eel Interstate Fishery Management Plan. The public hearing will allow the public to participate either in person at the Dover Public Library from 6 to 8pm – or remotely. Officials say the yellow eel population is depleted due to a combination of over-fishing in the past, habitat loss, food web alterations, disease and more. The benchmark assessment proposes a new index-based tool for setting the yellow eel coast-wide cap. The Draft Addendum’s five coast-wide cap options range from status quo to large reductions in the cap that will greatly restrict this fishery in the future.
Additional information from DNREC:
The Board initiated Draft Addendum VII in August 2023 in response to findings of the 2023 Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report. The results of the assessment are consistent with the results of the previous assessments, which indicate the yellow eel population is depleted compared to its population of fifty years ago. This depletion is attributed to combination of overfishing in the past, habitat loss, food web alterations, predation, turbine mortality, environmental changes, and toxins, contaminants, and disease. The assessment and peer review recommend reducing fishing mortality on the yellow eel life stage, while also recognizing that stock status is affected by other factors. The benchmark assessment proposes a new index-based tool for setting the yellow eel coastwide cap, since there is no statistical model for estimating the population size of American eel. The Draft Addendum’s five coastwide cap options range from status quo to large reductions in the cap that will greatly restrict this fishery in the future.
Draft Addendum VII also proposes options to reduce the requirements for biological sampling during young-of-year surveys conducted by the states, based on the stock assessment finding that individual length and pigment stage data are not useful for evaluating population trends. In addition, it considers changing the requirements for the collection of trip-level harvester data on catch per unit effort, and the policy used to determine if a state qualifies for de minimis status and can be exempt from implementing fishery regulations and monitoring requirements.
For more information on the hearing, including instructions for attending remotely and for commenting on Draft Addendum VII, go to the ASMFC web site:Â Â https://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input
