Paper short abstract:

Bio-commercial flows, biocultural heritage and fish-based local and global connections and identities are explored through a case study of young eels (elvers) in the eelscape of Britain’s Severn estuary, a bio-cultural waterscape/shorescape shaped by the world’s second highest tidal regime.

Paper long abstract:

Each year, running with the high spring tides, a large proportion of the staggering numbers of young eels (elvers) born in the Sargasso Sea two years earlier complete their eastward migration by entering one of western Europe's biggest estuaries: the Severn, which separates England and Wales. This paper engages with notions of bio-commercial flows, biocultural heritage and animal-based local and global (human) connections and identities through a site-sensitive case study of a diadromous fish species with one of the most curious, science-defying life cycles (only one percent of all fish migrate between fresh and saltwater) as well as exceptionally rich commercial, food and cultural histories. Within the world of diadromous fish migration, the (catadromous) eel's movements are second only to the (anadromous) salmon's in terms of spectacular character and the quantity of scientific studies devoted to them - but rank far behind the 'noble' and 'charismatic' salmon within popular consciousness and scholarly studies within the environmental humanities. This paper aims to remove ('daylight') the eel from the salmon's shadow by evoking the distinctive 'animal landscape' (eelscape) of the Severn estuary, a bio-cultural waterscape/shorescape shaped by the world's second highest tidal regime. This paper is based on research for the Eel Strand of the 'Hidden Ecologies' project pursued by the 'Water City Bristol' case study within the national 'Towards Hydrocitizenship' project (funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council) http://www.watercitybristol.org/hidden-ecologies---eels.html.