Conservation, environment, water and wildlife
Slippery slope for eels
Green Ideas editorial team
Dr Jan Wright, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, says New Zealand’s native longfin eel is on the path to extinction, and a moratorium on commercial fishing should be put in place to help save it.
“The longfin eel can live to more than 100 years old and breeds once at the very end of its life, travelling thousands of kilometres into the Pacific to do so,” says Dr Wright. “This long, slow lifecycle makes it very vulnerable. It is critical that we stop fishing longfin eels.”
The longfin eel is New Zealand’s apex freshwater predator and can grow up to 2m long and as thick as a man’s thigh.
Power company Meridian Energy has been working with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research on a six-year project to help protect eels living in waterways where the company generates electricity.