Silver eel production in Europe has only been quantitatively assessed in a very small proportion of the continental wetted area, and there are presumably large areas producing eels, for which there are no data whatsoever available. Interpolation of knowledge gained from the data rich monitored catchments to catchments where little or no eel data exists is therefore required. In this paper, we present a Bayesian framework which was developed for estimating silver eel production for sites across Europe where no prior knowledge of eel was available, by linking models of growth rate, survivorship and recruitment with a set of explanatory variables. Those variables used in the models are freely available for any catchment in Europe. The growth rate modelling appeared robust but there were weaknesses in the survivorship and production modelling. Lack of eel data (recruitment, production) for calibrating the framework and maybe lack of appropriate explanatory variables are highlighted as factors warranting further consideration and development.
