Europe’s eels face oblivion as smugglers feed Chinese demand
- Europol estimates as many as 100 tonnes of baby eels are trafficked abroad each year
- Product viewed as both a delicacy and an aphrodisiac in Asia
Billions of euros worth of critically endangered eels are being trafficked each year from Europe, ending up on tables in China and Japan in what campaigners say is “the largest wildlife crime on Earth”.
Stocks of European eel (anguilla anguilla) have plummeted 90 per cent in three decades as mankind has developed the wetlands and dammed the rivers it needs to grow and feed in, and experts fear criminal gangs smuggling the lucrative fish are pushing it towards oblivion.
Despite growing alarm from conservationists, hundreds of tonnes of eels are still legally and illegally fished each year.
In France – which catches more of the fish than any other EU state – the issue has taken on political dimensions.
“There’s around 10 per cent of stocks left compared to 30 years ago due to habitat loss and what we’ve done to the migration pathways in Europe,” Andrew Kerr, chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group (SEG) that works to conserve the species, said.
The eel’s vertiginous decline has provoked some action from governments and law enforcement agencies. It is now listed in the CITES international convention on trade in endangered species, resulting in strict national catch quotas.