EU Fails to Prevent Illegal Eel Trafficking

Reader Contribution by Pr Newswire
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The Sustainable Eel Group (SEG) is calling for the EU to take action against the harmful and illegal trafficking of the European eel taking place. The European eel is already critically endangered, with fishing restrictions in place for the species, as well as a trade ban forbidding the eel to be exported outside of the EU. So far this season – despite these restrictions – about 110 million young European eels have been illegally trafficked to Asian countries, where the species is considered a great delicacy. Due to its huge popularity, the Japanese eel markets almost faced total collapse from overfishing.

The demand in countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea is so high that their eel farms cannot keep up with demand for ‘unagi kabayaki’, and has caused farmers to look elsewhere to keep up their supplies. To meet this demand, farmers require some hundred tons of eel to continue growing them in farm ponds, so they depend on illegal eel trafficking to repopulate their farms each season.

Recent evidence shows that while the EU may have implemented a trade ban on the European eel, EU Member States may not be properly or strictly enforcing the ban. France alone has declared that 140 million glass eels have been captured so far this season, but a market survey showed that only some 30 million have been sold in legitimate European markets, while the rest have vanished.

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