Descriptions of the Aquatic Animals on Stanpit Marsh

Stanpit Marsh

On this page we describe interesting facts about the aquatic animals found on Stanpit Marsh. All photographs are by members of FOSM. It is an ongoing project and you can become involved. If you have photographed a aquatic animals on Stanpit Marsh send it in for display here.

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We also have a page on:
Plants on Stanpit Marsh
Insects and Spiders on Stanpit Marsh
Birds seen on Stanpit Marsh
Reptiles and Amphibians on Stanpit Marsh
Mammals on Stanpit Marsh

Where have all the eels gone?  By Ann Blofield  (Newsletter Article)

While carrying out some brief surveys of the salt pans on the Marsh and Purewell Stream recently, we were pleased to find some elvers [young eels]; a fairly unusual sight these days!
Current reports from the Environment Agency suggest that the number of European eels [Anguilla Anguilla] across the continent has declined about 95% in the last twenty five years and continues to do so.  Nearer home our local historian, Mike Andrews, tells me that forty years ago eels abounded in fishing nets and could also be clearly seen in the water.  Now they are a rarity.  The question of where have all the eels gone is being asked very seriously by conservationist and fishermen alike.
So what is the problem?  What has caused the considerable decline in numbers?  No one really knows the answer although there are many suggestions.  The possibilities include shifting of the Gulf Stream so that the young eels are swept away from our shores, illegal fishing methods, parasitic infections, absorption of toxins and the blocking of rivers by weirs and dams.  Another entirely different suggestion is that there was a huge eel population explosion some fifty or sixty years ago, as happens from time to time in the animal kingdom, and that numbers are now returning to normal.  Many proposals have been put forward to try and reverse the decline in numbers including a ban on exporting eels out of Europe, a limit on the fishing season and the number of licences granted, the building of fish passes and catching the elvers to release them again further upstream ahead of any barriers.  The Environment Agency is keeping a close eye on the situation.