ARCHIVED - Mar Menor fishermen call an end to the eel season after surprise bumper December catch

Image: dead eels on the beach of San Pedro del Pinatar in October

The eels appear to have survived the episode of anoxia in the lagoon in October

The fishermen’s guild of San Pedro del Pinatar has voluntarily decided to call an early end to this winter’s eel fishing season after much to their surprise the fleet landed a bumper catch during the month of September.

That the catch is so surprising is due to the episode of anoxia (lack of oxygen) which resulted in tons of dead fish and crustaceans being washed up on the shore of the Mar Menor in October, an event which was sparked by the amount of fresh water running into the saltwater lagoon during the gota fría storm of September. Images taken at the time clearly showed that eels were among the species affected by the lack of oxygen, but if the size of the December catch is anything to go by the species did not suffer as much as had been thought.

During last winter’s eel season the fishermen of San Pedro brought ashore 19,000 kilos of eels, but in December 2019 alone the catch amounted to 34,000 kilos. Given that the species is in danger of extinction this has brought about the decision to end the season early, despite the law stating that if they wanted they could continue to “harvest” eels for a fortnight in February and throughout March: in consequence, no Muraena more eels will be added to the season’s total as of Friday 24^th January and it will not be permitted to catch any more until 1^st December 2020, after which the first part of the season will last until 15^th January 2021 and the second for the whole of March.

The entire eel catch at San Pedro del Pinatar is sold by auction in advance, and this year it is being purchased by an exporter in Valencia. Market prices are around 25 per cent lower than a year ago, but with such a large catch the income generated is some 80 per cent higher, according to the guild.

Exactly what caused such a bumper few weeks is not certain, but the fishermen themselves believe that the cold and windy weather played a part. In calm conditions ells tend to remain on the seabed, sometimes even hiding in the sand and seaweed, but they become far more active when conditions are rough, especially at night.

Most of those caught have been large and black or dark grey in colour, indicating that they are adults, while the reddish younger eels have hardly been seen – more good news for the fishermen as the meat of mature eels is generally more widely appreciated.

The Mar Menor is one of the preferred homes of the eel in the Mediterranean, one of the seas where the species spends the middle years of its remarkable life cycle. Eels are born in the Sargasso Sea, near the Caribbean before migrating to other parts of the world, returning to the Sargasso to breed and die. In the meantime, they may spend as long as 14 years in the Mar Menor in the case of females (or 12 years for males), darkening in colour as they mature, and females which do not then manage to leave the Mar Menor and return “home” become sterile, growing very large and turning into formidable predators.

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