What’s the Big Eel?

June 7, 2022, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. ET. Join CWF’s Senior Conservation Freshwater Ecology Biologist Nicholas Lapointe and Jennifer Sylliboy, Program Manager Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, as they discuss the biological and cultural history of the American Eel. Jennifer will present on American Eel in the Bras d’Or Lake, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and the relationship between Kat (eel) and the Mi’kmaq people. The population of American Eel has declined in the Bras d’Or Lakes over the past 20 to 30 years. While many Mi’kmaw harvesters feel the population is still good and has seen its ups and downs, its future is uncertain. Mi’kmaq people have traditionally harvested adult eel for food and cultural purposes for thousands of years. The value of eels to Mi’kmaq culture is difficult to quantify. The value is not driven by dollars, landings, or economic potential. The value is in the life, culture, health, and spirituality they sustain. With population declines globally, we need to ask ourselves what would our lives be like without the American Eel? And what can or are we doing to ensure that doesn’t happen. Nick will take us through the American Eel’s unique and fascinating life history and their conservation crisis in Canada. Sadly, this life history places them at risk from human activities and has contributed to their global decline. Alarms were first raised in the early 1990s about their decline in Canada due primarily to hydropower dams. But little has changed to address this threat. The federal Fisheries Act and Species at Risk Act should both protect the species, along with provincial legislation, but so far regulators have taken little action. We will explain what has been done to date, what has stalled, and what can be done to change the situation and help American Eel recover.