The Decline of Eels

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The Decline of Eels, Somerset Eels

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I started this project in response to being part of a funded project for The Somerset Wildlife Trust, called The Somerset Brilliant Coastline. 12 artists working in different mediums getting excited by different aspects of this much underrated bit of coast from Minehead to Weston Super Mare. I have had a wonderful time exploring the coastline and estuaries in the company of experts in marine biology, geology and botany.

Quite by chance, last September, Andy Don, an International Eel Expert came to my studio to buy another print for his collection. Over a cup of coffee he told me about what he did for a living and how eels had declined in the last 40 years and especially here in Somerset. This was a perfect subject for me to explore for this project. He mentored me and has taught me so much, feeding me the latest scientific information on which I could create these prints, I could never have done it without him!

I wanted to make people from Somerset and further afield aware of what we could be losing, by impediments to eel migration, such as weirs and other man-made structures, also the mortality caused by being drawn into lethal intakes such as pumping stations, hydropower plants and nuclear power stations.

Other pressures have been man’s greed by illegal exploitation (smuggling millions of glass eels to Asia), climate change (the shifting of the currents on which the Leptocephali drift and rely) and invasive parasites introduced from abroad.

I could not believe that this dramatic saga is unfolding annually on my coastal doorstep. The story of our Somerset eels seems to resonate across all species. I felt compelled to capture some of these themes in my relief editioned prints.

Our local wildlife here in Somerset is truly showing its connection to the global world.

The Sustainable Eel Group, www.sustainableeelgroup.org have taken up my prints and hope to use them to help raise awareness for their cause.

Sustainable Eel Group is a Europe wide conservation and science led organisation working with partner bodies and individuals to accelerate the eel’s recovery.

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