Animals and Money: Consumerism is driving the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) to extinction

Fishery is a primary industry worldwide. However, commercial fishing and overfishing are driving many aquatic species toward extinction by interfering with population life cycles¹, meaning they cannot reproduce. Especially the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is “critically endangered”^2,3, since it has a survival rate of 10% in nature⁴ yet is also being traded in large amounts internationally at high prices⁵. Regulations have been put in place to protect and recover the critically endangered European eel populations^2,6.

The European eel has a complex life cycle, traveling 5000 to 6000 km from inland fresh water to the ocean during their lifetime to spawn. Eels live as yellow eels in freshwater until reaching sexual maturity⁷.They change from yellow to silver eels before they migrate to their mating area in the Sargasso Sea⁸. The hatched larvae reach Europe and Africa coastal waters by Gulf Stream^7,8. Upon reaching the continental shelf, they metamorphose from larvae to glass eels, with most completing their migration to continental waters as pigmented yellow eels^4,7.

© Wikipedia- https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1041171

Due to this complex lifecycle, eel farming is based on lower effort wild catches of glass eels. While various fisheries of A.anguilla exist in Europe, the largest producers are based in Asia^7,9.
Since individual glass eels are quite small, the sold amount is measured by weight. One kg of glass eel consists of about 3,500 individuals, meaning that 1000 tons are equivalent to 3,5 billion individuals¹⁰.
In 2019, around 4000 tons of A.anguilla (live weight, all life stages) were caught in the wild, three times less than in 1980. At the same time, around 5000 tons of eels were produced in aquaculture in 2019¹¹.
In 2018, the estimated value of a processed fillet at consumer level in Europe was 60 €/kg, considerably higher than other fish (e.g., Atlantic salmon ~15.00€/kg)^10,12. From this it has been calculated that the economic turnover generated from the eel market at consumer level is between €59 million and €711 million annually for raw fillet and between €188 million and €2.27 billion for processed fillet. However, the market prices differ across countries within Europe.
Besides regulations to protect the European eel, import and export of European eels from the EU have been prohibited since 2010⁶. However, despite export ban from the EU, high demands in Japan and China drive up prices of fish and cause illegal exports. In 2015-17 about 30 tons (~50%), of the reported European catches of European eel were untraceable but were likely traded to East Asia¹⁰. Europol estimated that 100 tons of eels have been smuggled to supply Chinese eel farms¹³. That would be the equivalent of 350 million glass eels, or €625 million.
There is a lot of illegal trade and available data is partly unreliable due to thus unlisted catch figures. Glass eel resources are the bottleneck in the development of the eel industry⁵. At the same time, eels are very susceptible to overfishing⁷. Since demand is much higher than reported supply, high profits fuel the black market, which makes European protection measures almost impossible. The huge scale and persistence of illegal trade - potentially three times the size of the legal market! - not only has a massive human impact on the stock but also undermines the credibility of European eel conservation plans¹⁰.

In conclusion, reducing demand would be key to protecting European eels and the balance of the ecosystem. A general ban on eel fishing could result in a poorer image of the eel trade and consumption and, in combination with educational campaigns, reduce demand. Furthermore, consistent prosecution of illegal trafficking is required. It is up to future decisions and precautions to protect this unique species and not let it fall victim to the consumerism of humanity.

Issue 7 (PDF)
Charlotte Kricke