The eel population in the Foyle has been severely depleted in line with the collapse of the species across Europe and now stands at just 3.38 per cent of historic levels.

That’s according to a new Stormont paper on the health of marine and freshwater fish stocks across the North.

Peter Betts, from the Assembly’s Research and Information Service (RAISE) reports that outside Lough Neagh eel populations are less intensively monitored.

However, across the North ‘stocks are considered severely depleted, consistent with the wider European collapse’.

"Historical comparisons suggest the present Foyle eel population stands at just 3.38 per cent of historical levels.

"In response, the Loughs Agency employs stringent conservation measures: all eel capture except by rod-and-line is prohibited, and any eel caught must be released immediately, with sale banned to prevent further stock loss,” the paper reports.

Mr. Betts sites a 2015 study that notes that an experimental eel fishery was established in the Foyle estuary in the early 1970s but halted due to low catches.

"Even if populations of eels were unsustainably overfished during this period, it is reasonable to expect that the lower Foyle eel numbers would have recovered in subsequent ‘pristine years’, before the recruitment collapse,” the article by J. Barry, K.J. Bodles, P. Boylan, C.E. Adams that was published Royal Irish Academy found.

Mr. Betts report how a commercial eel fishery in Lough Erne in County Fermanagh was ‘closed in 2010 following widespread declines, though limited and regulated glass-eel harvesting for stocking continues’ in the area.