Eel was in the news in the United Kingdom last week, as research published by the Zoological Society of London suggested that stock levels in the River Thames, which runs through the capital, have declined by 97 percent in the past five years.
Traps placed in tributaries captured just 50 eels, compared to 1,500 taken during an annual monitoring project in 2005. The results have dismayed conservationists, as the river has been dramatically cleaned up over the past few decades and other marine life has made a significant recovery.
However, this latest research is in line with findings throughout Europe, where the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is in severe decline, and has been placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List as a critically endangered species.
This has prompted green NGOs to call for a ban on the sale of eels, and many retailers and restaurateurs have complied with the request. Eel fishermen, farmers and smokers, whose businesses have been hit hard by their actions, dispute the figures and are urging that this strategy be reconsidered.
Along with oysters, eel was once a staple food in London’s East End, where jellied eel — cooked and set in its own juice — remains a favourite. The Spanish love fried glass eel, the Belgians, French and Italians have stewed eel, the Germans and Dutch prefer it smoked, and the Poles have it roasted.
The European eel begins and ends its life in the Sargasso Sea. Larvae drift eastwards on oceanic currents for three to four years before entering river systems as glass eels. They migrate upriver and can even cross land to enter ponds, ditches, lakes and lochs, where they live in fresh water for up to 20 years, before migrating back to the Sargasso to spawn and die.
Scientists are uncertain about the exact causes of the eel’s decline, but believe that overfishing, loss of habitat, and loss of fertility due to pollution, parasites, disease, upstream dams and barriers are all major factors. Currently, around 18,000 metric tons are caught annually in Europe.
To encourage recovery of the stock, the EU has asked member states to develop national management plans that would allow at least 40 percent of the silver (mature) eel population to return to the sea to spawn. These plans vary from country to country, but severely restrict the commercial fisheries, which are highly valuable.
Some countries are considering an export ban, as large numbers of glass eels are flown to China and Japan, where they are grown out in farms. It is estimated that around 65 percent of the elver stock is exported in this way, as eel catches in Asia have also fallen dramatically and eels have not yet been bred successfully in captivity. Increased demand has led to prices as high as EUR 1,000 (USD 1,415) per kilogram for glass eels.
In the Netherlands, the government placed a two-month ban on eel fishing in 2009, and a three month ban in subsequent years. “This was very bad for business and when the season reopened it was harder to find a market because of publicity from the NGOs,” says Marja Hoekman-Bekendam, whose family fishes for eel. “Our income fell by 40 percent in 2009 and we anticipate a greater drop this year.”
A downturn in demand has also been noted by eel smoker Alex Koelewijn, of Spakenburg Paling BV, who prepares around 200 metric tons of product from wild and farmed eel for markets in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
“We really need a major breakthrough in eel breeding. Scientists are working on the problem in several countries, but I fear that their work may come too late to save many of the businesses here,” he says.
