The Thames Eel Population Suddenly Crashes - Benedict George 8B

The Thames Estuary, previously considered ‘biologically dead’ in the 1960s, was repopulated by European eels and flounders. That population grew continuously over the next forty or so years. Their population was examined and recorded by the Zoological Society through trapping and releasing. However, after decades of stability, we face a disaster. Four years ago, in 2005, there were 1,500 eels in the Thames. Last year, there were only 50. As we live in London I have chosen this topic because it is a local economic and, perhaps more importantly, ecological disaster.
This dramatic drop in the eel population could bring huge consequences, not just for eels but for other species that live in the Thames estuary and for humans as well. Jellied eels have been an old east London dish since the 18th century. Commercial catching of eels is now near impossible and so, more expensively of course, eels must be imported from Northern Ireland and Holland.
There are birds which feed on eels and there are small fish which are fed on by eels in the Thames. These, of course, with the crashing eel population, are bound to experience huge fluctuations in population. This will have a disastrous impact on the Thames estuary’s food chain.
Eels migrate for up to three years, as larvae from the Sargasso Sea, via European rivers, where they spend up to 20 years, after which they cross the Atlantic to spawn and die. It is thought that the sudden drop in their population must be caused either by a diversion – the eels simply skipping their stay in the Thames Estuary each year, or by artificial intrusion caused by humans such as dams, or by new parasitic diseases or by changes in oceanic current due to climate change. The Thames is not alone - other rivers in Britain have also had a reduction in their eel population.

Whatever the cause, one thing is certain. It will be a disaster for all concerned if the eels die out completely.
Want to read more?
BBC news website
Telegraph online

Well done Benedict, an interesting and useful written piece. Good links to science!