<
https://www.positive.news/society/enlisting-hearts-and-minds-to-save-somersets-last-eels/>
"Vanessa Becker-Hughes remembers when eels were plentiful on the Somerset
Levels. As a girl in the 1970s she would fish for eels using a hazel stick and
worms, storing her catch in her grandmother’s bath before they would be poached
in milk for dinner. On a good night, she and her family could catch up to 200
using this traditional technique – known locally as ‘rayballing’ – to sell
around the village the following day.
Last summer, Becker-Hughes decided to go rayballing for the first time since
her childhood, after receiving the necessary permits. She managed to catch (and
release) only one. “Relating that back to my experiences when I was 10 or 11, I
felt a great sadness,” she says.
For millions of years, European eels have made their extraordinary migration
from the Sargasso Sea across the Atlantic to the rivers of Europe. They undergo
five metamorphoses over around 20 years, before returning to the Sargasso to
spawn and die.
Eels were once so common in the Levels they were used as currency to pay tax,
and evidence of their former importance is still reflected in place names and
ancient buildings. But numbers have fallen by about 95% over Becker-Hughes’
lifetime, due to factors including the drainage of wetlands, food barriers that
prevent migration, and water pollution.
Determined to help bring this critically endangered fish back from the brink,
Becker-Hughes and other residents founded the Somerset Eel Recovery Project
(SERP) in the summer of 2023. Its approach is somewhat unconventional. To
successfully restore eels to Somerset’s waterways, they believe, they also need
to be restored in the hearts and minds of the people who live here.
To this end, they’re working with artists and historians, as well as
environmentalists and scientists, to rebuild the “lost connection” between
people and eels. So far, they have engaged thousands of local people through a
combination of creative outreach and citizen science.
Members aim to reach old and young alike, holding monthly ‘eel cafes’ – drop-in
sessions to capture older residents’ oral histories – while inspiring the next
generation. Last year, primary schoolteacher Hannah Strode set up 59 elver
tanks in nurseries, primary, secondary and special educational needs schools."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
