Report of the 2009 Session of the Joint EIFAC/ICES Working Group on Eels, Göteborg, Sweden, 7-12 September 2009

Abstract

This Report summarizes the presentations, discussions and recommendations of the 2009 session of the Joint EIFAC/ICES Working Group on Eels which took place in Göteborg, Sweden, hosted by the Swedish Board of Fisheries, from 7 to 12 September 2009. In this section, the main outcomes from the report are summarized, a forward focus is proposed in the light of the EU Regulation for the Recovery of the Eel Stock and the main recommendations are presented. It is clear from this Report that recrui tment is still low and in many time-series it continues to fall, the stock is in decline and urgent protection measures are required. Significant pressures have been placed on the scientific and technical system to support the delivery of Eel Management Plans by December 2008. This challenging situation has continued though 2009 with the evaluations of submitted plans taking place. The evaluation of eel management plans has been carried out by the ICES Secretariat as a technical evaluation and r eview service. Eel experts from the ICES communities, especially the joint EIFAC/ICES Working Group on Eel, have been involved on an ad hoc technical/expert consultant basis.