In the first post of a short series, I take a look at the European eel fishery, which is beset by illegal trade as European eel becomes a prized commodity in Asia

This year the banks of France’s great rivers have become the stage for an intensifying conflict, cued by the arrival of millions of baby European eels migrating from the North Atlantic into Europe’s rivers. Alongside the legitimate eel fishing season, which runs from November to March each year, a thriving black market usurps young eels from European waters, transporting tonnes of them, live, to Asia annually. This year the issue has reached a head, as those illegal forces clash with conservationists who are trying to draw attention to the eels’ fate – especially along the waterways of France.

The European eel species (Anguilla anguilla) is a centuries-old staple in European cuisine, but in the last 45 years, it’s undergone estimated declines of 90-95% that make it a critically endangered species today. “We’re actually dealing with a species on the very edge of survival,” says Andrew Kerr, chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group (SEG), an organisation working to aid the recovery of European eel across its habitat.

Before 2009, countries could freely trade eel caught in Europe with international markets. But over concerns about the huge decline, EU-wide restrictions were imposed in 2010, limiting the trade to within the European Union only. Now, it’s illegal to sell European-caught eel to markets outside the EU.

Consumption within the region continues: according to estimates from the Sustainable Eel Group, European countries collectively catch 15 to 17 tonnes of young ‘glass eels’ each year as they enter European rivers that are then placed in aquaculture farms to grow out for later sale. And yet that legal appetite is rapidly being surpassed by the illicit one, which ironically sees more of these glass eels transported abroad than are consumed in Europe. “We know that in 2014 and 2015, some 20 tonnes was recorded as arriving in the farms of Asia,” says Kerr, who has been meeting with French authorities and fishermen since the fishing season began to discuss threats facing the eel.

France and Spain are the most active players in the fishery. France has the largest fishery, taking the lion’s share of incoming European eel. This fact puts it at the heart of discussions about the illegal trade. But this year especially, the country faces new scrutiny, as talks between fishermen, scientists, and conservationists in the region intensify over the escalating black market, amid increasing calls for sustainability. In addition, a report issued late last year by the Working Group on Eel, a scientific assessment body for the species, ominously highlights five major French rivers as the worst in Europe for eel mortality. Illegal trade isn’t the only problem for these fish: it’s compounded by widespread habitat destruction across their range, and hydropower plants that barricade waterways and kill hundreds of thousands of eels annually with their blades, as the fish try to navigate Europe’s rivers. Meanwhile, on top of all this the illegal trade continues.

Estimates from the East Asian eel industry put the black market eel price at between $1,200 (£800) and $1,500 per kilo once it reaches Asia.* Since they’re bought and sold at the glass eel stage, when they’re arriving in Europe as babies migrating from across the seas, one kilo can contain around 3,000 individual fish, says Kerr. These eel are flown mainly to China, where they seem to have become the unfortunate substitutes for Japonica, a preferred Japanese eel species that’s now in decline, explains Vicki Crook, trade analyst and report author with Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network. There, they’re often reared in farms and sold years later as adults – so obtaining initial shipments of baby eels, however risky, is seen as a highly profitable investment. Since 2010 when international trade was outlawed, the black market has been unrelenting in its quest for eel. “The information we have suggests it’s ongoing and that it’s a very pricey commodity,” says Crook.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest European Eel ( Anguilla anguilla) at the glass eel stage. Photograph: Rodger Jackman/Getty Images/Photolibrary RM

This year, there are clues that the illegal activity continues. “So far in this season some 30 tonnes has already been caught. SEG suspects at least half has gone to Asia. The authorities have already intercepted many shipments in France, Spain and on arrival in Hong Kong,” says Kerr. “I would guess for every one fish that’s been taken, one fish has gone to Asia.”

This process undercuts eel conservation, as well. Of the legal eel catch, a certain proportion of live glass eels is supposed to be set aside each year for purchase by European countries who, instead of consuming them, put the fish towards the restocking of their eel-depleted rivers. But conservation groups suggest the illegal trade thwarts those efforts by driving up the price of the fish, making it more costly to restock, and making more eel available to Asia instead. “It’s like trying to fill the bath and someone pulled the plug out,” says Kerr.

France is seen as the kingpin in this trade not just because it’s where the bulk of the eel come from, but also because of its fishing quota system. Annually the country sets itself a catch quota, which it claims is based on scientific research: this year it’s 57.5 tonnes. That’s roughly double the overall EU allowance for eel consumption and restocking, which together are estimated to reach about 30 tonnes annually. “I think it’s ridiculous to set a quota for your country on its own that’s twice the legal demand,” says Kerr. He’s concerned that the overly generous allowance this year may be driving the trade, encouraging poachers, and drawing in otherwise law-abiding fishermen who may see a lucrative opportunity. “The fishermen need to earn a living, but we’ve got to get the stock to recover,” says Kerr. “You can’t just rob nature regardless when it’s critically endangered.”

On the other hand, French authorities say fishermen are the victims, not the perpetrators, of this illegal activity. “There are some rivers where professional fishermen can’t go because of the poachers,” says Nicolas Michelet, an official from the French National Committees for Marine Fisheries and Inland Professional Fishers, two organisations that represent fishermen’s interests. Eel fishers have suffered economically too: since 2006, their numbers have more than halved, says Michelet. Furthermore, the country’s continued efforts to protect the fishery go unrecognised, he claims. According to Michelet, France upholds strict fishing regulations, has dedicated restocking efforts, and has orchestrated the release of half a million adult silver eels back into the sea to breed. “The French glass eel fishery is strictly regulated and has made major efforts over the last 10 years to reduce its fishing pressure.”

Whether fishermen or other forces are to blame for the continuing trade remains an issue of keen debate. But beyond this political stalemate, the illegal activity continues at a surprising scale. It’s believed to involve at least five European countries that variously act as transit or departure points for baby eels, sending them off on their longest and most unnatural journey.

In the next post, I’ll look at how the illegal trade unfolds on the ground, and how authorities are trying to curtail it. In the background, a slow move to sustainability is continuing along the riverbanks of France – a sign of potential change.

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Why the eel’s fascinating lifecycle makes it sensitive to illegal trade

Part of the reason the European eel is so affected by overfishing is its enigmatic lifecycle, which begins thousands of miles away in the middle of the North Atlantic. Eels start out as tiny eggs deposited in the warm Sargasso Sea, hatching en route to Europe as currents carry them there. That journey can take up to three years before they reach Europe’s broad landmass transformed into small, transparent slivers known as ‘glass eels’, and then astoundingly adapt to freshwater as they make their way up Europe’s waterways.

Eels that escape fishermen’s nets face a gauntlet of other threats further upstream, including denuded habitats stripped of wetlands and waterways, and the fatal blades of hydropower plants. But the lucky ones mature, spending years –even decades – upstream, until their scales take on a silvery sheen. That’s a cue for sexual maturity: under the veil of a moonless night, these adult eels will suddenly retreat en masse, determinedly writhing all the way back to the Sargasso Sea. There, they’ll spawn and trigger the entire, epic cycle again.

Undermining the population with illegal fishing at the crucial glass eel stage means there will be fewer eels available to breed upon return to the Sargasso Sea, which will affect the whole cycle in due course.

* This estimate comes from an article published in July 2015 in Nihon Yoshoku Shimbun, a Japanese aquaculture industry newspaper only available in printed form.