by/par
Prof. Dr. Klaus Tiews
Director, Institut für Küsten- und Binnenfischerei der
Bundesforschungsanstalt für Fischerei, Hamburg
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
dear colleagues,
On behalf of the Director-General of FAO, Dr. E. Saouma, and our mutual friend, the Assistant Director-General for Fisheries, Mr. F.E. Popper, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Finland for acting as host to the Symposium on Eel Research and Management. The arrangements made for the preparation and the organization of this Symposium have been outstanding. We have especially to thank the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry, the Department for Fisheries and Game and The Finnish Game and The Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Division for having organized this Symposium on behalf of the Government of Finland.
I can assure you that we have come with great anticipation and pleasure to this wonderful country, which has a special affiliation to the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission. The establishment of EIFAC by the FAO Council in 1957 was the result of a request made at the FAO International Inland Fisheries meeting in Helsinki in 1956.
It is thus most gratifying that Finland has the honour to host in connexion with the Ninth Session of EIFAC also this Symposium in Helsinki just 20 years later.
It is a great honour and privilege for me to welcome you in my capacity as Chairman of Sub-Commission I of EIFAC who is at the same time also the delegate of his country to ICES. With your kind permission I would like to make a few remarks in connexion with the Symposium.
In 1973 EIFAC has submitted a document to the Statutory Meeting of ICES in which possible fields for active cooperation between EIFAC and ICES were listed. This document paid special reference to eel research which is dealt with by the Anadromous and Catadromous Fish Committee within ICES.
At this meeting of ICES held at Lisbon it was decided then that the Symposium should be organized by both organizations to deal with problems of eel research and management. In 1974 EIFAC at its Eighth Session at Aviemore agreed to the proposal and recommended to hold such a Symposium in connexion with the Ninth Session of EIFAC here at Helsinki. This recommendation was accepted by ICES at its Statutory Meeting in 1974 at Copenhagen.
The need for such a joint meeting arises from the fact that although eel research has a long tradition it is carried out more or less in isolation in the single countries. In view of the great importance of eel fishery in many of the countries represented here, its partially international character and the potential threat to the fishery posed by the other water users and, in particular arising from the pollution hazard, an international cooperation seemed to be timely.
The conduct of this Symposium is being considered as an important move to evaluate our present knowledge on the biology of eels, the status of the eel fisheries and especially on the population dynamics of this fish species in order to identify the existing gaps in our knowledge and the measures to be taken to close them on the basis of joint efforts.
Already in recent years a number of synoptic elaborations to special aspects were completed. These are a synopsis of biological data of the eel by Dr. C.L. Deelder, published by EIFAC in 1970, an EIFAC consultation on fishing gear and techniques, edited by C.J. McGrath and published by EIFAC in 1971, and EIFAC report on the technique of transportation of both elvers and eels, a review by C.J. McGrath, an EIFAC workshop on ageing of eels sponsored by Prof. Amanieu in 1975 and a report of the ICES working group to consider the state of stocks of European eel which has been prepared under the chairmanship of Dr. Inge Boëtius in 1975.
In order to accomplish the task of this Symposium to evaluate the present status of our knowledge on the eel and the eel fishery this Symposium shall be held in five consecutive panel meetings.
Panel 1 shall deal with the appraisal of the present status of eel fisheries; Panel 2 with the measures for the improvement and maintenance of eel fisheries; Panel 3 with the age and growth under natural and artificial conditions; Panel 4 with the migration and reproductive phase of eels, and Panel 5 shall draw conclusions from the discussions and shall formulate recommendations about the future actions which should be taken.
There is no doubt, that the eel is one of the most important if not the most important food fish of the inland fisheries in a number of countries represented here today.
The eel plays also in some of the coastal fisheries an important role. The fish is commercially caught in all age classes: eel fry is caught for human consumption, for stocking purposes of inland waters and recently also for eel farming; young eels for stocking purposes of inland waters and finally the grown up fish for human consumption purposes. The catch of eel fry for human consumption represents a special problem as recently the demand for eel fry has considerably increased parallel to the development of eel farming and one can be sure will continue to increase in the future.
It is, therefore, hoped that the Symposium will contribute to find an answer to the question whether the present utilization of the eel fry stocks of the world biologically and economically will be senseful also in the future.
The great international attention which the Symposium has obtained also from outside Europe demonstrates the great interest which the eel attracts also in overseas countries. One can be sure that three interesting days are before us and that this gathering of the most experienced scientists in the field will bring us a good piece forward for the better understanding of the biology of the eel and its economic utilization.
I hope also that this meeting will give the delegates the possibility to have contact with each other and of discussing the mutual problems thoroughly.
I think that the exchange of experiences by this distinguished group of scientists will be very worthwhile for the development of inland fisheries and coastal fisheries in general.
I wish you all success at this meeting and I am sure that the worldwide known hospitality of our Finnish hosts as well as the unique beauty of the Finnish landscape with its over three million hectares inland waters, more than 60 000 lakes and rivers and more than 210 000 kilometres of coastlines will contribute greatly to this aim.
