Islanders have been asked to record sightings of eels to help the Guernsey Nature Commission build a greater understanding of the fish. The European eel population has seen a 95% decline since the 1980s, primarily due to freshwater habitat loss and barriers preventing access to inland feeding grounds.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species has registered the European eel as critically endangered, the category closest to extinction. Ecologist Charlotte Burgoine has requested that anyone with information on recent or historical sightings, or knowledge of areas where eels were once seen, share it with the Nature Commission.
European eels hatch in the Sargasso Sea, grow in freshwater environments, and then return to the sea to spawn. Freshwater habitats are declining due to drainage, land clearance, habitat mismanagement, and pollution, which can fragment and isolate waterbodies, potentially preventing eels from moving between them. Infrastructure along the coast and inland, such as pipes and dams, also makes it harder for returning eels to migrate inland to their feeding grounds.