OTTAWA, March 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New research by the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF), relying on documents obtained through a freedom of information request, reveals that Ontario and hydropower producers in the province have failed to meet legal responsibilities for conserving the American Eel.
“Despite decades-long declines at provincial, national and international scales, little progress is being made in Canada to protect the species and reduce threats to it,” said Nicolas Lapointe, CWF senior conservation biologist, freshwater ecosystems.
CWF led development of a newly accepted peer-reviewed paper on American Eel protection under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act (ESA). Regulations under the ESA require hydropower facilities that harm the American Eel to register, which then allows them to self-manage their mitigation and reporting.
CWF and Carleton University obtained information on facilities registration, mitigation plans and monitoring reports via freedom of information and data-sharing agreements with certain hydropower producers were also obtained. Documents were analyzed and compared with American Eel distribution data and best practices for monitoring and mitigation.
CWF’s analysis has revealed that:
- Less than half of the facilities that kill or harm the American Eel were registered as required, and of these, only half had mitigation plans that included actions to reduce harm
- Monitoring designs were of low quality and produced information of limited usefulness to inform American Eel conservation efforts
- Only two individual American Eels were demonstrated to have benefited from mitigation actions since the proponent-led management system was implemented in 2013
“American Eels are experiencing drastic population declines, including a decrease of more than 99 per cent in Ontario”, said Lapointe. “Without more targeted attention and efforts to stem their decline, the species could soon be extirpated from the province.”
To address these failings, Ontario must begin to fully enforce the ESA and establish best practices and objectives for hydropower facilities to ensure American Eels have access to former habitat. Ontario must also reduce deaths from hydro turbines. The effectiveness of these protection measures must also be properly monitored.
CWF encourages Ontarians concerned about the health of fish in the province to contact their MPP directly to express their concerns about the state of American Eel conservation. With concerted efforts from citizens, governments and various industries CWF is hopeful that the American Eel can recover.
For more information, read the full paper in FACETS.
About the Canadian Wildlife Federation
The Canadian Wildlife Federation is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated to fostering awareness and appreciation of our natural world. By spreading knowledge of human impacts on the environment, carrying out research, developing and delivering education programs, promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, recommending changes to policy and co-operating with like-minded partners, CWF encourages a future in which Canadians can live in harmony with nature. For more information visit CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca.
For more information:
Heather Robison
Media and Community Relations Officer
Canadian Wildlife Federation
heatherr@cwf-fcf.org
613-599-9594 x 212
Pamela Logan
Director of Communications
Canadian Wildlife Federation
pamelal@cwf-fcf.org
613-599-9594 x 250
BACKGROUND:
The American Eel is a fascinating fish that is born in an area of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Sargasso Sea, and then migrates thousands of kilometres to freshwater rivers and lakes from Greenland to Venezuela to feed and grow before returning to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.
The American Eel was common in rivers and lakes of Canada’s East coast, Quebec, and Ontario. Many Indigenous groups value eels for medicinal, instrumental, nutritional and ceremonial purposes. Until 2004, American Eels were also the subject of a considerable commercial fishing industry in Ontario. Although significantly reduced, commercial fisheries in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces are ongoing.
Today, the American Eel’s complex life cycle is threatened by overfishing, loss of access to habitat, mortality due to hydro-electric turbines, and other factors.
The American Eel is listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as well as by Ontario’s Endangered Species Act.
The species was listed as Threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in 2012 but has not yet been listed federally. CWF has conducted field research on the American Eel using radio and acoustic telemetry. We studied the effects of catch and release angling on American Eel and developed best practices for handling and releasing hooked eel.
Did You Know?
- Ontario’s eels are all female and are among the largest in the world.
- A single female eel can produce up to 20 million eggs.
- It is estimated that Ontario eels once produced 25 per cent of the eggs of the global population.
- One-forth of all adult eels that leave Lake Ontario to migrate to breeding grounds in the Sargasso Sea are killed by the Saunders Dam in Cornwall. A further 17 per cent are killed at the Beauharnois Dam 80 kilometres downstream before they reach free passage to the ocean.
- Ontario’s recovery strategy for American Eel, published in 2013, included the objective to restore access to habitat by 10 per cent every five years. Nearly 10 years later, only one eel ladder has been installed. Portage Power installed an eel ladder at the Chaudiere dam, and also installed a bypass system to reduce turbine mortality. Similar actions are needed elsewhere.
Here are a few options for hydro electric companies to consider:
- Install eel ladders so that juvenile eels can make it upstream
- Spill water over the spillway at night so that adult eels can make it past the dam without going through the turbines
- Or, for adult eels, install screens in front of turbines and bypass channels
- Or, for adult eels, capture them upstream and transport them downstream of the turbines
Learn more: CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca/eels
A PDF accompanying this announcement is available at http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/343d23a9-333a-43ca-9027-3ce3125197fe
