Czechs fit eels with transmitters to monitor them

Prague, Sept 7 (CTK) - Czech scientists sew transmitters in eels' bellies to monitor them on their way along rivers to the sea where the adult fish run to propagate with the aim to protect them in the future, daily Pravo writes Friday.

The scientists have already fitted 70 out of the planned 100 eels with chips.

The fish perish on their way to the sea between the blades of turbines of hydro-electric plants.

"This experiment is to gain information on how many eels manage to pass through the river network and mainly to precisely map the time schedule of migration so that we may be able to predict it and agree on stopping power plants' turbines, for instance," Jiri Musil, from the Water Management Research Institute in Prague, told Pravo.

He said the eel is critically endangered in all Europe.

"The numbers continue decreasing. Now there is one percent of the fish population in the 1980s and 1990s," Musil said.

The 10-centimetre long transmitter in a special wrapping is sown in the eel's belly by a veterinary, Musil said.

He said antibiotics and various anti-parasite preparations are injected in the incision to prevent inflammation. Only a piece of thin wire protrudes from the body. It plays the role of an aerial.

The life span of the Canadian transmitters used is three to four years, Musil said.

He said scientists map eels' migration in the basin of the Labe (Elbe) and Odra rivers.