Earlier this week, representatives of the Sustainable Eel Group attended a screening event at the European Parliament focused on eel trafficking and the wider challenges surrounding the conservation of the European eel, A. anguilla. Hosted by MEP Niclas Herbst, a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries (PECH), the event brought together policymakers, enforcement authorities, scientists, recreational fisheries representatives, and members of the documentary production team to examine one of Europe’s most significant wildlife crime challenges. The event provided an opportunity for stakeholders from across the sector to discuss both the immediate threat posed by the illegal trade and the longer-term governance structures required to support the recovery of the species.

At the centre of the event was the screening of Billion Dollar Babies, an investigative documentary co-produced by BBC Eye and DOCDAYS Productions. The film examined how a combination of strong demand for eel in parts of Asia and international trade restrictions have contributed to the emergence of one of the world’s most lucrative wildlife trafficking networks. The investigation followed nominally legal exports of glass eels from the United Kingdom to Russia, while raising questions about the ultimate destination of some shipments. It also included testimony from a member of an organised crime network in Hong Kong, and explored the unforeseen social and political impacts the glass eel trade is now having in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. SEG had previously analysed the documentary earlier this year and readers may wish to refer to that earlier article for a more detailed assessment of its findings.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion and question-and-answer session involving representatives from European institutions, scientific organisations, enforcement authorities, and the film’s production team. These discussions focused on how existing conservation measures could be strengthened and how Europe might improve implementation of the policies already in place to protect the species. During the session, SEG Science Lead Willem Dekker was asked how the European Union should proceed if it was serious about accelerating progress towards the recovery of the European eel.

In his response, Dekker sketched a multi-decadal overview of the strategic development of Eel protection policies in the EU, and highlighted the great successes and still remaining shortcomings. Placing the Eel policies in a much broader context of Good Governance, he suggested a solution. His words were as follows:

I had a central position in eel research and advice, since the mid-1980s.

In the century before, one had pursued pure national management, as well as full international coordination for the eel, both without success.
The key to the achievements of the current EU policies is the clever cooperation – and clear distribution of responsibilities – betweeninternational orchestration and national implementation.

This applies to:
1^st fisheries management, both nationally and internationally;
2^nd for the non-fishing impacts, the different EU-policies for habitat loss, migration barriers, pollution, cormorants; and
3^rd – and this is the success story we talk about today – closing off the European eel arena for disrupting external influences, mainly from China – foremost through the CITES listing.

This approach has worked remarkable well: it activated people around Europe from 2007 on, and subsequently halted the decline in eel recruitment after 2011. To be honest: I had not expected such a rapid success.

But over the years, the situation became stuck again: politicised discussions just keep going on, and policy implementation remains half-baked – with insufficient protection as result, and thus: no recovery.

In my view, the EU policies for eel are well designed and proven effective, but we need a stricter orchestration to implement them more completely.
The way forward calls for a structural and politically-legitimised strengthening of the orchestrating role of the EU, to end the quibbling that currently paralyses all our efforts.

How to strengthen EU’s orchestration? All major EU policies have some participatory advisory body – but the Eel Regulation has not. With firm political support for a structural advisory committee of some sort, it must be possible to overcome the quibbling, and to orchestrate the protection policies for the eel more successfully.