The group discussions held at the Department of Systems Ecology, Department of Political Science and Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University contributed to enhance the study. Thanks to Rashidi Banzi, Salum Hashim and Hamadi Khatibu for their significant

MK0683 manufacturer inputs in the field. To Maria Bergstén and Linus Hammar for their important contributions digitalizing the market data and mapping the fishing grounds. Thanks to Ratana Chuenpangdee and the “Too Big to Ignore” network for sharing aspects of small-scale fisheries. Thanks to Dr. Lars Lindström for field assistance and for patiently reading the manuscript and to Jan-Olov Persson for invaluable statistical advice. Our gratitude goes to two anonymous reviewers and one guest editor who provided sharp and appreciated comments to enhance this manuscript. This study was financed by Sida, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and VR, Swedish Research Council (344-2011-5448).

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“The 1 December 2013 edition of the Sunday Times featured an article entitled ‘Starkers, sinuous and gutsy and that’s just her eel’. It provided a photograph of the 45 year old ex X-Files actress Gillian Anderson, naked, but hiding her ‘altogether now’ with a dead conger eel (Conger conger) draped around her shoulders. Intrigued, I read on. Apparently, the actress is a supporter of the charity Fishlove and the conger eel is threatened with extirpation, if not extinction, by fishing activities.

Now, I did not know this and so am grateful to Gillian not just for her picture but also for the information that has allowed MAPK Inhibitor Library mouse 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase me to examine this topic more closely. Figure options Download full-size image Download as PowerPoint slide The European Conger conger is the largest eel in the world and native to the Northeast Atlantic, including the Mediterranean Sea. The long, anguilliform, and grey-black, conger has a usual length of 150 cm but the largest eel caught in England was snared off Falmouth in Cornwall and weighed 95 kg. That’s more than I weigh! The world record, however, is held by Iceland for one individual weighing 139 kg. Now, that’s a big fish. The head is conical, flattened dorso-ventrally, with forward pointing malevolant eyes set above a brutish snout containing rows of conical, needle-sharp, teeth. The species usually lives among subtidal rocky habitats, wrecks, reefs and rough ground, sometimes sharing its refuge with moray eels, and from which they emerge at night to hunt. Congers mainly feed on fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans. Strangely, and something else I did not know (although I should since this is well known for its smaller cousin, Anguilla anguilla) congers reproduce only once in their lives, at an age of 5–15 years, but with females producing millions of eggs. The only known conger eel spawning site is located in the Mediterranean, near Sardinia.