A STRETCH of a North-East river has been identified as a much-needed sanctuary for endangered eels.

Environment Agency officers found 138 eels in 100m of the River Wear near Finchale Priory, Durham – making it one of the best sites in the area for the fish.

Numbers of European Eels have been falling sharply across the Continent and are now at five per cent of 1980s levels.

The decline has put the eel on the endangered list and won it legal protection.

Ten areas of the River Wear are assessed for stocks every two years, along with ten sites on the River Coquet.

Robbie Stevenson, a fisheries technical officer at the Environment Agency, said: “It’s not known exactly why there’s been such a dramatic decline but things which could have impacted include barriers to migration, damage associated with abstractions, disease, pollution and being eaten by predators.

“We’ve been creating new eel passes and removing obstructions from watercourses to make it easier for them to migrate as well as working with other partners to help reduce impacts on eel. Important monitoring such as this means we can assess the ongoing situation.

“But it will take several eel generations before it’s known if measures put in place now will have an impact in the future.”