• The illegal trafficking of critically endangered European glass eels continues to thrive, generating up to 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in peak years, with more than 1 million live eels seized in 2023 alone — mostly en route to East Asian aquaculture farms where they’re raised to maturity to produce the delicacy unagi.
• Europol describes the trade as a highly organized transnational crime involving smuggling, document fraud and money laundering, with sophisticated players using scientific expertise to keep smuggled eels alive during transit.
• Conservationists warn that removing juvenile eels from the wild disrupts their life cycle and ecosystem functions, worsening the species’ 90% population decline since the 1970s and threatening biodiversity in connected marine and freshwater systems.
• Experts call for stronger enforcement, improved monitoring, public awareness and habitat restoration to combat the trade and avert further ecological damage.

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