Announcement
ICES Workshop of a Planning Group on the Monitoring of Eel Quality: “Development of standardized and harmonized protocols for the estimation of eel quality.” (WKPGMEQ)
At INBO, Brussels, Belgium, 20-22 January 2015
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) stock has been declining for several decades. Pollution by bioaccumulating toxic compounds and the impact of (new) disease agents have been suggested as possible causes for this decline. The ICES WGEEL 2012 stated, that, to improve the assessment of the impact of contaminants and diseases on effective spawner biomass and reproductive success of the European eel, national routine monitoring programmes are urgently required. The WGEEL 2012 and OSPAR recommended Member States to implement routine monitoring of eels for lipid levels, contamination and diseases. They also identified the need to develop standardized and harmonized protocols for the estimation of eel quality. This would create the possibility, to compare national data and to reliably incorporate them into international stock assessments. Measuring contaminant levels in eel relates to the Eel Regulation (Council Regulation No 1100/2007), to the 2013 EC Directive dealing with Priority Substances under the Water Framework Directive (2013/39/EC and 2008/105/EC) and to the Commission Regulation No 1881/2006 setting levels for a number of contaminants in foodstuffs to protect public health, a.o.
The Workshop aims to design standardized and harmonized monitoring protocols, and to facilitate the integration of eel quality parameters in quantitative assessment of the reproductive potential of the stock.
Objectives:
a ) design standardized and harmonized protocols for the estimation of eel quality with regard to the bioaccumulation of contaminants (including sampling, analysis and reporting).
b ) design standardized and harmonized protocols for the estimation of eel quality with regard to diseases (including sampling, analysis and reporting).
A report will be prepared and finalized by 28 February 2015 for the attention of ICES.
Webpage : http://www.ices.dk/community/groups/Pages/WKPGMEQ.aspx
Experts involved in the monitoring, analysis or reporting of contaminants in and/or diseases of the eel are invited to sign up for participation to this workshop by sending an email on their application before 1st of October, 2014 to Claude Belpaire Claude.Belpaire@inbo.be and Olga Haenen Olga.Haenen@wur.nl