Éric Feunteun

Professor in marine ecology

National Museum of Natural History (MNHN, France)

Professor E Feunteun has been working on the biology and the Ecology of migratory fish, and diadromy for more than 35 years. He has mainly focused on the ecology of marine phases of Anguillid eels. His research aims at understanding variability of life history traits among and within eel species with an evolutionary perspective, and also with issues for management of these declining species. In this view he has sampled eels over Europe and indo-pacific areas, both in inland waters but also in the South West Indian Ocean. He also focuses on the resilience of marine fish communities and populations to environmental variability in the frame global change drivers, and to human activities. This research provides the roots of his expertise in the field of conservation Ecology. 

He has published over 130 papers in peer review journals is considered a renowned expert in marine ecology and biology of migratory fish. He works on citizen science as a tool for the management of biodiversity.

His talk will present the results of a methodological study to estimate the contribution of glass eel restocking to sustain the European eel population. Based on the restocking programme on the Loire River started in 2011 combined with a long term survey of the downstream migration started in 2001, it was possible to estimate the contribution of restocked eels to the silver eel production in 2019. This sheds the base of an approach to appraise the efficiency of restocking programmes as part of the restoration plan of this threatened species. 

Talk: Restocking Anguilla anguilla in the Loire River, from glass eels to silver eels