Eel Management Plan for Kaliningrad (Vistula) Lagoon

Abstract

In 2007, the European Commission initiated the Eel Recovery Plan (Council Regulation No. 1100/2007) to try to bring the European eel stocks back to more sustainable adult levels and the return of the glass eel. Each EU Member State is required to develop a national eel management plan. These plans aim to achieve a return of silver eels to the spawning population equal to or greater than 40% of the potential biomass that could be obtained in the absence of anthropogenic disturbances related to fishing, water quality or barriers to migration. The advantage of this approach is that it offers a standard basis and allows for the integration of stock status data between EU and non-EU countries.
 The purpose of this Plan was to determine for the Vistula Lagoon within the territory of the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation:
 1. Management objectives based on an assessment of the potential stock of the silver eel in the absence of anthropogenic mortality and high (before 1980) recruitment levels.
 2. The current level of the stock of silver eel in relation to the planned indicator (ie assessment of compliance with the planned indicator).
 3. Control actions necessary to achieve or maintain this compliance.
 4. A set of data needed to support the steps 1-3 above and to demonstrate whether compliance will be achieved in the future, i.e. that the actions defined in the management plan will lead to the recovery of the eel population.