Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

THE ОHRID EEL ( ANGUILA ANGUILA L. 1758) IN AQUARIUM IN THE OHRID LAKE

2018; Volume: 26; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

2545-4439

M. Hristovski, Aleksandar Trajcоvski,

Fish Ecology and Management Studies

Bearing in mind the statements from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, that more than 70% of the fish population is overused or exhausted we have to highlight that unfortunately the European eel is one of the hardest-hit species. In the last couple of years, a large part of the eel habitat has been degraded or lost because of the poor quality of the water generated by land reclamation, dam construction, and overfishing. Consequently, all of this led to a sharp fall in the number of eels, and the IUCN- International Conservation Union reported that European eel is part of the group of endangered species. This is a major problem for Europe, because eel has socio-economic significance. In order to prevent further fall, the European Commission has introduced national eel management plans, and the aim is to limiting fishing and restoring inland waters with young eel. However, measuring the effectiveness of such initiatives is difficult due to the complexity of the eel life cycle. Adults are spawned in the seas and after the spit disappear, while their little ones migrate into the inland waters and mature there. Throughout its lifetime, the European eel travels thousands of miles across various dwellings. The migration nature of the life cycle exposes them to natural and human pressures, acting on a local and global scale, where it is difficult to predict the success of conservation policies in the long run. The problem with the eel was also present in the Ohrid Lake back in the 1970s with the construction of 2 hydrocentrals on the river Crn Drim Globocica and Spilje, which prevented the natural migration of the eel. As a solution to this problem, the lake's stocking was taken as an out-of-date solution that can be easily seen statistically. From 1955-1964 period before the construction of the Hydrocentral Spilje, we have about 9160 kg of eel per year, while after the construction of the hydroelectric power plants we have a downward trend -1985-1997 5,458 kg per year. Likewise, a major lack of stocking of Ohrid Lake with imported eel is the introduction and facilitation of the easy spread of new diseases (Anguillicoloides crassus) and the possibility of excessive stocking. And in the present time we come across with the refusal to pay invoices for the supply of offspring by the general and legal affairs department of HЕC Spilje.