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Updated 2:55pm
THOUSANDS OF ENDANGERED eels were killed by ESB traps on the River Erne at Ballyshannon, Co Donegal.
The traps at Cathaleen’s Fall are suppose to help assist the eels’ migration around the power station at Ballyshannon.
However nobody was checking the traps at the Easter bank holiday weekend and there was a huge run up of eels.
They had nowhere to go once the holding traps became full and they died when they ran out of oxygen.
ESB have confirmed that 336,000 eels’ died in the traps.
In a statement released this afternoon, ESB said that:
It would appear that an exceptional number of elvers entered one trap overnight at the very start of the season, exceeding the trap tank storage capacity with consequent mortalities in the order of 112kgs.
ESB say that are carrying out a full investigation into the incident and that a final report will be published in the coming days.
The European Eel Consultancy expressed its dissatisfaction with ESB, stating that it should not be managing the eels migration programme:
This event is further apparent evidence that running a national elver monitoring programme / juvenile eel assisted migration programme is beyond the capabilities of the ESB.
However ESB have stated that, “ESB has successfully operated an elver trapping programme at the station for over five decades and remain committed to this important conservation programme”.
Endangered
The European eel is an endangered species.
Fishing on the Erne was banned four years ago following an EU directive as there was a 90 per cent drop in stocks since the 1970s.
Sinn Féin MLA Phil Flanagan said “The kill accounts for a quarter of the elver population going into the Erne system being wiped out in a single weekend due to negligence”.
He said that the responsibility for managing eel and fish stocks on Lough Erne needs to be transferred from ESB to a management body such as the Loughs Agency.
This kill demonstrates the need for responsibility for managing eel and fish stocks on Lough Erne to be transferred from ESB to an organisation dedicated to the preservation of fish and the promotion of angling such as Loughs Agency, which already plays this role in other border areas.
However ESB said “In the 2013/2014 season ESB has released 39.3 tonnes of mature outward migrating silver eel with a further 64.2 tonnes migrating to the sea.
“Therefore 103.5 tonnes of eel migrated to the Saragasso sea as a direct consequence of the ESB Trap and Transfer systems for both elver and silver eel.
This is the highest output on record.
Originally posted at 9:00am
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Eel Slaughtering Board
Who the hell counted 336,000 eels?
Divide the total weight of eels by the weight of one.
By weight. The average amount per kilo would do fine.
Surely each eel would not the exact same weight. How could they know how many of the eels were obese for example or maybe a certain number had a higher metabolism. I’m just not overly convinced about the level of accuracy here.
I was over simplifying it The_five_lamps. Weigh ten, fifty or a hundred eels. It doesn’t matter. Get the average weight. Divide the total weight by that average. 336,00. It’s a rough guess within a margin of 1,000.
The lads enjoyed their four days off and that’s all that matters.
I feel sorry for the person that counted 336,000 of them , it must have been his punishment for killing them
What a flippin joke.
lough earn co Fermanagh this is happening for years, they trap loads of fish, fish can’t get through the traps to lay their eggs where they have lay them for generations and die in the trap that is why the fish population has gone down this has been brought to the attention of the ni fisheries, who proceed to sell fishing licences and promote tourist competitions for fishing the lough was abundant with fish before esb decided to help with their migration. Stop the netting of fish from Irish and UK waterways is a facebook page if anyone is interested.
The ESB haven’t a clue about fisheries. They destroyed spawning grounds with the arterial drainage scheme. They have introduced non native species. The overstocked rivers with juvenile fish. They still allow drift netting. The fisheries bord should be a separate agency.
its not just eels that are getting slaughtered by the Esb`s mis-management … why is there No Salmon in the upper Shannon and its tributarys ?
It’s fierce hard to kill an eel. My friend caught an eel one day, chopped him into 4 or 5 pieces and put him into the frying pan with 2 fried eggs cooking away nicely. He went to the fridge for a beer, and when he came back, hadn’t the fookin’ eel eaten the 2 fried eggs.
Pure true!! ;-)
The ESB, being a state agency has no responsibilities for it a actions.
There is no-one accountable so we’re best to just move on……..nothing to see here folks
Electric eels?
What a cock up
Eel be in trouble, whoever did this.
Ask the E.S.B. did they also have a major fish kill in 2013.
As long as no-one is held accountable, that’s all that matters.
Eels are my favourite fish. What a tragedy
Will someone get the sack ?!?!?
You are not allowed to be sacked in a Semi State organisation.
Electricity & Water dont combine well.
Actually, water is not conductive. *snort*
I hate eels. Do they do any good??
Do you?
eels are super cool. they travel 7000 miles from the Sargasso Sea across the atlantic to spawn in our rivers. just to meet Esbs turbines……
They should put arnaas in charge of this task for ESB….seems he has the exact qualifications for the role.
Spot on … and they taste nice, too.
Would the ESB be held responsible for this neglect?
Not joking here – this is an animal cruelty issue.
They can’t be that endangered of over 300,000 were going up one part of one river on one particular weekend. That said, good fcuk up by ESB. Now bring on the electric eel gags
Does this mean the Olympia gig is cancelled on July 1st?? I just booked a hotel
a form of “In trap meant” ?
Who counted the eels? How much did it cost?who is on the board of the counting company?
One minor correction: the place referred to in this article is not Cathaleen’s Fall. Never has been. No such place.
It’s called Cathleen’s Falls, or Assaroe Falls.
Ye can’t beat a eel sandwich
The E S B have been at this for years, salmon have been killed also but they tried to cover it up, and they won’t let anglers fish for them which would bring much needed tourist to our town; thousands of salmon go through the system each year and many of them die in there traps, and that’s the fact which they try to hide year after year.
Pity the poor fella who have to count all 336,000 of them !
The loss of these elvers or glass eels to the Erne system can be gauged by the fact if these eels were allowed to mature for 7 to 10 years they would represent a weight of approx 450 to 500 tonnes of mature silver eel worth between € 2million to € 2.5 million. Considering commercial eel fishing has been banned for last 4 years on Erne system to enable these people, who are responsible for this disaster, to carry out a conservation programme makes this cock up all the more serious and shows those responsible as inept. Silver eel fishermen are small in number but the income they got from fishing made a huge difference to their annual income and their plight at the time was dismissed by then Government of FF and Greens and received no compensation for loss of earnings.Then we see ineptitude like this.
And we trust these muppets with electricity ?
ESB = Evil stupid board. Now we know how they bag their electricity haha
I hope the eels were insured.
Horrible mankind’s effect on nature but look on the bright side if we don’t wake up soon there won’t be a planet for humans live let alone eels.
Sounds like a dropped pixar movie concept
Oops were elley sorry about that we went on the piss for the weekend and forgot all about them
What’s the problem? St. Patrick forced all of the snakes into the rivers in the first place and he gets a day all to himself to celebrate this..
Poor Eels lol
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