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AFP-JIJI

Nov 21, 2018

PARIS – 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 percent 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 toward oblivion.

Despite growing alarm from conservationists, hundreds of tons 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 percent of stocks left compared to 30 years ago due to habitat loss and what we’ve done to the migration pathways in…