Miljöanalys / Öppna miljödata / Databeskrivning:

Eel monitoring data

December 2025

Metadata

Funding agency
The EU, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, other financiers (e.g. Formas, VR, foundations, associations)
Keywords
eel, European eel, Anguilla anguilla, freshwater, monitoring, stocking, recruitment, eel fry, DCF
Data citation

Data from aqua.slu.se/al

SLU Aqua's database Sötebasen.https://aqua.slu.se/al/. [yyyy-mm-dd]

KUL Database:

The database for fish monitoring fish along the coast – KUL. yyyy. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Aquatic Sciences. http://www.slu.se/kul [yyyy-mm-dd]

NORS databse:

National Register of Fish Monitoring in Lakes – NORS. yyyy. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Aquatic Resources. http://www.slu.se/sjoprovfiskedatabasen [yyyy-mm-dd]

SERS database:

Svenskt elfiskeregister – SERS. yyyy. Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Institutionen för akvatiska resurser. http://www.slu.se/elfiskeregistret [yyyy-mm-dd]
 

File format
csv
Language
Swedish
Frequency of update
Annually
Subject area
  • Biology
Species group
  • Birds
Swedish environmental objectives
  • A rich diversity of plant and animal life
  • A balanced marine environment, flourishing coastal areas and archipelagos
  • Flourishing lakes and streams
  • Thriving wetlands

Institutionen för akvatiska resurser (SLU Aqua)

Contact

Philip Jacobson

SLU provides a large amount of different types of data on European eels, including occurrences and individual data from test fishing, information on releases and recaptures, and recruitment.

The Department of Aquatic Resources collects data on European eel (Anguilla anguilla) within the framework of the EU's Data Collection Framework (DCF) for fish and fisheries. Since eels move over large areas and are found in the sea, along the coast, and in freshwater, eel data is collected in various monitoring programs and stored in different databases. In addition, data is collected on releases, commercial catches, and catches of upstream migrating juvenile eels in various types of eel traps, for example at power plant dams. SLU Aqua is tasked with compiling, managing, and making available data on eels that is used as a basis for national and international stock assessments and in eel management.

Data on European eel that is openly available includes:

  • eel fry release
  • recaptures of eels from restocking programmes (all restocked eels have been strontium-tagged since 2009)
  • recruitment of small eels to different river basins (catches of upstream migrating young eels)
  • occurrence and catch per unit effort of eels from fish surveys in rivers, lakes, and coastal areas, as well as individual data (e.g., length, weight, age, and parasite occurrence).

In addition, data from various tagging projects, commercial fishing landings, and additional individual data from dissections have been collected, but they are not currently publicly available. If you are interested in this data, please contact us. 

Download data

Data on eel fry releases, recapture rates for released eels, and recruitment of small eels to different river basins can be visualized and downloaded from a website (through an interactive shiny application). The data is downloaded in .csv format, is open and free to use as long as Sötebasen and the download date are cited as the source. The application is usually updated once a year when new data has been compiled. The application is continuously being developed.

Occurrences and individual measurements from fish surveys in lakes, streams and coastal areas can be downloaded from the fish data host and the NORS, SERS, and KUL databases: