Terms of Reference

Stock-wide Assessment Framework for American eel: Part 2 - Review of trends and approaches to assessment

National Peer Review - National Capital Region

October 29 - 31, 2019
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Chairpersons: Deborah Austin and Marten Koops

Context

The American eel is believed to form a single panmictic stock over a continental range which extends from Greenland to northern South America. Because of its presumed status as a single stock, a previous CSAS review (DFO 2014) and many other Canadian, US, and international forums have called for a stock assessment that would embrace its entire species range. However, science and management of the American eel remains geographically fragmented. Within Canada, the American eel is widely distributed over the six eastern provinces. The population production of American eel has high cultural significance for First Nations and is subject to commercial fisheries with an approximate value of $25M per annum. The stock status of American eel in Canada was evaluated by COSEWIC (2012) as Threatened. A subsequent Recovery Potential Assessment (DFO 2014) showed a preponderance of decreasing population trends over 32 years and an even distribution of increasing, neutral, and decreasing trends over 16 years. The stock status of the Maritimes Region component of the American eel has recently been assessed against mortality-based reference points (DFO in prep.). Quantitative US assessments (ASMFC 2012, 2017) cover only those parts of US Atlantic waters that are commercially fished. These sources are insufficient to provide robust advice on American eel management and conservation in Canada because available abundance trend compilations are not up to date and because available quantitative assessments cover only limited portions of the species range.

There are ongoing pressures on DFO Science to provide robust advice on management and conservation of American eel within Canada. In the immediate term, information/advice is needed by DFO and provincial (Ontario, Quebec) authorities to assist decision-making in fisheries management, habitat management, SARA designation, CITES response, and compliance with Bill C-68, which will mandate evidence-based management measures that ensure sustainability of fish stocks. In the long term, robust conservation advice will require progress towards development of a range-wide assessment framework that provides guidance appropriate to the species' single-stock status.

Objectives

1. What analyses can be completed with the compiled data to inform fisheries management, fish and fish habitat protection, SARA designation, CITES response, and compliance with Bill C-68? These analyses may include temporal trends of landings and abundance indicators, productivity and susceptibility analysis, data-limited stock assessment techniques, estimation of human induced mortality and/or spatially-explicit approaches.
2. What approaches have been applied to eel assessments? How successful have these approaches been at informing the management and conservation of eels? This may include reviews of the assessment approaches applied in the US Atlantic States, DFO’s Maritimes Region, and the European Union.
3. What additional approaches could be explored to help inform a range-wide assessment? Can these approaches be applied with the currently available data? What additional data would be needed to apply these approaches? What additional data could be collected at existing monitoring sites to better integrate regional recruitment indices and to relate standing stock to recruitment?
4. What is needed to develop a range-wide assessment framework?

Expected Publications

• Proceedings
• Science Advisory Report
• Research documents

Expected Participations

• DFO SARA and FRM
• First Nations
• Governments of Ontario and Quebec
• Environmental non-government organizations
• Fishing industry
• Hydroelectric utility representatives
• US federal and/or state governments
• ICES Eel Working Group member
• Other eel experts

References

ASMFC. 2012. American eel benchmark stock assessment. Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Washington

ASMFC. 2017. 2017 American eel stock assessment update. Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Washington

Cairns, D.K. 2017a. A review of data availability and analytic approaches for a range-wide assessment of the American Eel. Working Paper for the American Eel Science Framework for Canada. 42 pp.

Cairns, D.K. 2017b. Governance models for collaborative international science and management of American Eels. Working Paper for the American Eel Science Framework for Canada. 25 pp.

COSEWIC. 2012. COSEWIC assessment and status report on the American eel Anguilla rostrata in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa.

DFO. In preparation. Assessment of the Maritimes Region American eel and elver fisheries. Can. Sci Advisory Secretariat Report.

DFO. 2014. Recovery potential assessment of American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) in eastern Canada. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2013/078.