De status van de Europese aal in Nederland: is het broodje paling al duurzaam?

Door verschillende oorzaken is het aalbestand zowel in Nederland als in de rest van Europa de afgelopen jaren hard achteruitgegaan. Het volwassen aalbestand in Nederland is in vijftig jaar met 95 % afgenomen. In diezelfde periode is in Nederland en de rest van Europa ook het bestand glasaal (jonge aal) met meer dan 95 % afgenomen (Wolfshaar et al., 2015; ICES, 2016). Het gaat inmiddels zo slecht dat aal op de Rode Lijst van de IUCN de status ernstig bedreigd heeft. Waarom gaat het zo slecht met de aal en wat kunnen we doen om het aalbestand te herstellen? The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) has a catadromous life cycle, an eel spending most of its life growing and maturing in fresh or brackish water, at last returning to the sea to spawn. All European eel is thought to belong to one single population. Over the past 50 years, the stock has been reduced by 95 % because of overfishing, impeding migration to and from inland waters, pollution and parasitism. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advises that all mortality of eel caused by man should be reduced to as close to zero as possible. However, management measures within the European eel recovery plan are taken on a national level, without international coordination. In the Netherlands, measures consist of a mandatory catch and release for recreational fishers, of removing barriers to migration, of transporting eel across barriers, and also of the restocking of glass eel. Glass eel restocking has been carried out since the 19th century but did not prevent the collapse of the eel stock. Despite the fact that its ineffectiveness has been shown, restocking is still taking place and is also used to compensate the harvesting of glass eel from the wild for eel aquaculture. Therefore, the consumption of eel from fisheries or aquaculture is nor sustainable so long as the stock is showing no sign of recovery.