European Eel (Anguilla anguilla)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vertebrate > bony fish (Actinopterygii) > Fish |
| Red List Status: | Critically Endangered (Not Relevant) [CR(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Anguilla anguilla |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1758) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Nunn et al., 2023 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | Considered to be panmictic |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Population size reduction of more than 80% in three generations in Britain and no possibility of a rescue effect as they are Critically Endangered at a global scale as well as at a national scale. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Critically Endangered so require targeted on-going monitoring and management actions. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Pollution & migration barriers are threats that not only impact eels. Need free migratory passage. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 6. Recovery solutions trialled |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Combination or other (detail in comments) |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Impacts acting within and outside England, including migration impacts (barriers, entrainment/impingement), parasites/pathogens, contaminants, climate change, over-fishing in some locations. ICES are advising zero catch of all life stages and that all anthropogenic mortality should be zero. The reasons for the decline in European Eel are not fully understood and due to the life history of the species this is particularly challenging. Research continues to elucidate the relative contribution to the decline of a range of impacts. Therefore many measures are being trialled across range states and more/better data is needed. Important to note that European eel is considered panmictic, so recovery will rely on all nations taking action together. Action taken in England alone may not result in stock recovery. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Characterise and quantify non-fishery mortality (e.g. hydropower/pumping stations), and mitigate the impact of these with management actions (along with Eel Regulations compliance).
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Better understand the proportion, production mortality rates and life history of growth phase eels in transitional/marine waters.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments: Most our knowledge based on the FW populations.
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Strengthen monitoring data sets on all life stages so that we can better understand recruitment, escapement and the stock-recruitment relationship.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments: This could be done in combination with Action 1, so that populations of all life stages are assessed along with the various anthropogenic impacts happening in each monitored catchment. Elver pass/trap monitoring could be done relatively cheaply, especially if using AI software. Yellow eel monitoring is much more expensive to be meaningful/statistically robust. Silver eel monitoring is more challenging in terms of finding suitable sites.
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.