American Freshwater Eel (Anguilla Rostrata)
US FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE FACT SHEET
What is the eel’s status?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reviewed the status of the American eel in 2007 (Federal Register 50 CFR Part 17) and in 2015 (Link below),
finding both times that Endangered Species Act protection for the American eel
is not warranted.
After examining the best scientific and commercial information available about the eel from Greenland south along the North American coast to Venezuela in South America and as far inland as the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River drainage, the Service found that the
American eel is stable.
The American eel is the only species of freshwater eel found in North America. And is the only catadromous species found in North America as well.
The species has survived multiple ice ages and seems to be equipped to withstand the cycles and fluctuations inherent in ocean dynamics. Some scientists consider the highly adaptive American eel to have the broadest diversity of habitats of any fish species in the world.
An in-depth status review completed September 2015 found that the eel’s single population is overall stable and not in danger of extinction (endangered) or likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future (threatened).
The review was largely based on a biological species report peer reviewed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Fisheries, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Eel Technical Committee and academia.
The best scientific and commercial information available shows that the species remains widely distributed and locally abundant throughout its native range, as demonstrated by fishery landings, fishway counts of juvenile eels, and genetic estimates of spawning abundance. While sources of individual eel mortality still exist from harvest and hydroelectric facilities, these and other stressors do not threaten the overall species.
The consequences of being a panmictic species means there are no subpopulations of American eel. All individuals are genetically, behaviorally, and physically representative of the entire worldwide population. For example, an eel that grew up in Maine may mate with an eel that grew up in Mexico and produce offspring that have the same random chance of ending up in Greenland or Missouri.
There are no comprehensive population estimates for the American eel, but genetic information suggests the spawning abundance of mature eels from 1997 to 2008 has varied from 4.7 to 109 million eels. The best available information indicates that millions of adult American eels migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, and likely hundreds of millions of American eel larvae return from the spawning grounds to estuary and freshwater habitats.
The Service completed an earlier status review in 2007,
also finding then that ESA listing is not warranted.
