AZTI-Tecnalia has been working within the framework of the European INDICANG (INTERREG programme) project, coordinated by the French IFREMER institute, on the drawing up of a methodological guide for the study of the European eel. The goal of the project was to provide knowledge, criteria and methods for their application to the management of the species. Participating in the project were institutions representative of the main regions and hydrographical basins along the south Atlantic coastal areas of Europe. The project was undertaken between 2004 and 2007.

In the case of the Basque Country the participating bodies were AZTI-Tecnalia (with part funding by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Basque Government), the environmental consultancy Ekolur and the Gipuzkoa Provincial Government. As a pilot river basin the river Oria was chosen, given its tradition of eel fishing, its infrastructure for the control and sampling of environmental variables and for the abundant information existing about this basin. Over the three years of the project, fishermen, researchers and local government put their common experience and knowledge together as regards the species and its medium.

The guide describes the general biology of the species, its physiological, ecological and etological characteristics and outlines the principal anthropogenic pressures it is currently undergoing. The AZTI-Tecnalia researchers, apart from providing information about the Oria river basin, in order to illustrate the guide, has also contributed to editing two of the chapters. The original, French version of the guide went on sale in book format in 2008 (L'anguille européenne. Indicateurs d'abondance et de colonisation. A. Gilles, E. Feunteun, P. , C., Rigaud Christian Ed Quae); now a Spanish translation has come out and which can be downloaded freely here: www.ifremer.fr/indicang/version_espagnole/actualidad.htm

In October 2007 the European Council of Ministers adopted a number of measures for the recovery of the European eel population (EC Reg. 1100/2007). This Regulation obliged all member states to draw up their management plans for the species, presented in December 2008. This guide turns out to be of great use in the implementation of plans for recovery of the species, with its series of descriptors and indicators that enable an evaluation of the situation of the species and the effect of the measures put in place within the remit of these species management plans.

The European eel population (Anguilla anguilla) has undergone an intense decline over the past 25 years. In 2002, the Working Group on Eels (WGEEL) of the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, a body that provides scientific knowledge and advice about the marine environment) found that the species was beyond its biological safety limits and fishing thereof was not sustainable. This is the context in which the European INDICANG project arose.

Translation: Basque Research

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