The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the American eel as an endangered species, a move with many long-term ramifications for Connecticut businesses.
The eel is widespread in Connecticut’s waterways; but if the fish achieves an endangered status, the federal government and environmental groups would have a vast amount of authority to protect the species.
Fish and Wildlife is in the midst of a public comment period on the matter now, an early stage on the road to putting the eel on the endangered or threatened species list. Given the many implications an endangered species can have on an area — particularly its economic operations — businesses will want to get on this issue early.
At least one Connecticut business — Bridgeport utility Aquarion Water Co. — is working on a solution to lessen businesses’ impact on the eel while limiting the impact on its own operations, work that may become a model for the rest of the nation. Aquarion supplies water to 39 Connecticut cities and towns.
“The idea is to give the eel an opportunity to bypass our treatment works, where it becomes trapped and destroyed,” said Len DeJong, Aquarion manager of environmental and watershed management.
The American eel is a strange fish that scientists have begun to understand only recently, particularly its migration patterns. All eels are borne from eggs laid in the Sargasso Sea, which is a 2-million-square-mile area of the Atlantic Ocean. From there, they float around as larvae in the ocean before heading to freshwater to mature.
Eels are found from Greenland to South America but are particularly common in Connecticut waters. Here, the eel will spend anywhere from three to 40 years maturing sexually before the females head back to the Sargasso Sea to lay their eggs and start the life cycle over again.
The problem with the eel — and why it is under consideration as an endangered species — is the snake-like fish is particularly good at getting upstream and terrible at getting down. The eel can climb up the walls of dams and even live briefly on land to head upstream, but they can’t go through or over the dams when the time comes to head back to the ocean, leaving them to die without having started the life cycle over again.
“They have been extirpated from their historic habitats by actions that humans have taken,” said Meagan Racey, spokeswoman for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Northeast region. “We want to make sure they have access to their historic habitats.”
In addition to the problems caused by dams, the eels are also at risk from an Asian parasite introduced during aquaculture practices that prevents the eel from fully developing to survive the rigorous return to the Sargasso Sea.
While Fish and Wildlife is in the initial stages of listing the American eel, the eventual listing of a species as endangered can have a long-term impact on others sharing its habitat — especially humans.
Take the case of the delta smelt.
The delta smelt is a three-inch-long fish native to the San Francisco area of California that was first listed in 1993. Fifteen years later, Fish and Wildlife issued a biological opinion stating that the natural habitat of the smelt was injured by the practice of pumping water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the Central California Valley, which is one of the most productive agricultural areas of the planet.
As a result, the George W. Bush administration in 2008 decided to shut off the pumps to the Central California Valley. Ever since, the area that produces 8 percent of the nation’s food — including grapes, tomatoes and almonds — has been in a drought, losing growing capacity.
“They made that decision without giving any consideration to what the impact would be to give more water to the delta smelt and away from the San Joaquin Valley,” said Brandon Middleton, staff attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which has filed lawsuits on behalf of the farmers. “There’s been a boatload of litigation over this fish.”
Back in the early 1990s, when the delta smelt was under consideration to be listed as a threatened species, Middleton said businesses and people should have been aware of the potential impact.
“There’s no question that any time you have a species about to be listed, that the writing is on the wall that the government and environmental groups will use the listing of that species to restrict economic development and growth,” Middleton said.
To help the American eel continue its life cycle, the national environmental organization The Nature Conservancy is working with hydroelectric dam operators to modify their operations to help the fish get back downstream.
“We are always looking to remove dams where we can, usually those no longer being used for their original purpose,” said Sally Harold, Nature Conservancy director of the Connecticut River Initiative.
Aquarion Water Co. — which has nearly 600,000 customers in Connecticut — is working with The Nature Conservancy to develop a solution to the eel problem without having to remove every dam in Connecticut.
The pilot project at Aquarion’s Aspetuck Reservoir in Easton involves putting lights around the intake for the treatment plant. The lights are powered by solar panels and a wind turbine. Because eels shy away from light, Aquarion hopes the eels will head to a siphon that will carry them over the dam.
If successful, the method could be used around the world to cut down on the number of eels killed at dams, Harold said.
The pilot project is in its third year, but the results have been inconclusive so far. Last year — the first full season the lights were in operation — excessive rainfall raised the river level so much the eels didn’t need the bypass; they could swim right over the dam.
This year, Aquarion installed an underwater camera to monitor the eels. If the data collection this year indicates success, the company can determine how long the pilot project needs to last.
“We are hoping the rainfall pulls back, and we can control the level of the dam; and we can see how well our siphon program is working,” DeJong said.
As for the listing of the eel as endangered or threatened, the Fish and Wildlife public comment period ends on Nov. 28. That is part of a 12-month window the agency uses before deciding to list a species.
But because of a backlog of more than 250 potential listed species, Fish and Wildlife developed a six-year work plan in September to prioritize and make decisions on the possibly endangered species.
That leaves the decision on the American eel several years away, but the decision still is coming.
