World-wide, eel populations have decreased strongly in numbers over the 1980-2010s. The eel farms still depend on catches of wild juvenile eels, or ‘glass eels’, which are then raised to market size. Only a restricted number of glass eels is available for aquaculture and societal concern exists about the unsustainable level of their harvesting. Successful propagation in captivity could supply aquaculture with glass eels and close the production cycle. Eel aquaculture can become sustainable then and, by releasing the natural population from fishing pressure, also contribute to sustainable management of the natural population.
With our international consortium of partners that has tremendous experience in eel research, we aim to share our knowledge and collaborate to force breakthroughs in the propagation of eel in captivity. This is an absolute necessity as the partners currently depend on national funding and lack an international networking umbrella. The COST Action EEL SUPPORT will use the available networking tools to jointly share the state-of-the-art, to identify knowledge gaps, to develop collaborative strategies to fill these gaps, and to synthesize and review this knowledge in order to: i) design optimal protocols for broodstock conditioning from glass eel to an eel in early puberty, or ‘silver eel’; ii) design optimal protocols to artificially mature and propagate the eel to produce larvae, and iii) design hatchery technology for rearing larvae to the glass eel stage. This way, EEL SUPPORT will contribute to closing the production cycle and supporting sustainable aquaculture and management of natural populations.
The COST Action EEL SUPPORT was kicked off in Brussels on September 27 2023 and will run for four years. Currently, the Action has 72 participants representing 26 countries, including New Zealand and Japan. The first annual meeting took place early June 2024 in Demre (Turkey) and the Action was promoted in July at the 2nd International Eel Science Symposium in Liverpool (UK) and in August during an eel session at AQUA 2024 in Copenhagen (Denmark). Workshops were organized during the EIFAAC International Symposium in Pula (Croatia) in October 2024. The second annual meeting took place at the end of May 2025 in Cesenatico (Italy). A training school was organized in Hokkaido (Japan) in July 2025 to allow information exchange between the Japanese and European eel researchers. The Action is promoted at this AQUA2025 session in Valencia (Spain). By now, three short term scientific missions have been executed.
For more information on this Action, please check the EEL SUPPORT website at www.cost.eu/actions/CA22163.
This publication is based upon work from COST Action EEL SUPPORT, CA22163, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).