Last week, the European Council agreed on joint management measures for European eel; now the world is also offering further protection through stricter regulation of international trade.
Last Friday, the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) gave European eel further protection through stricter regulation of its international trade. Last Monday, the same day as the European Council decision on joint management measures, 90 per cent of the 171 member states supported a proposal to list it under Appendix II. The proposal is based on a Swedish initiative developed during 2006. In December last year, it got the support of the European Union and was accepted as one of the proposals to be dealt with during this year’s Conference of the Parties to CITES, held on 3–15 June 2007 in The Hague, the Netherlands. The proposal was discussed early last week, when it received majority support, but the formal decision was taken on Friday 15 June. Once a formal decision has been made, export restrictions come into force and European eel can no longer be exported without a special permit. Today, the trade outside the EU is dominated by the glass eel trade to South-East Asia. The European glass eel fishery is extensive, particularly in France and Spain, and until now more than 50 per cent of the catches have been exported for use in Asian aquaculture. Illegal fishing and trade has been high, as prices have been soaring in the last decade. A CITES-listing will hopefully put an end to this, and provide better control of the legal trade. The European eel is recognised as an endangered species and its critical state is well-known. Recruitment is very low, with glass eel levels only a few per cent of original figures. Exported eels do not return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, and keeping more of the glass eels within Europe is seen as a key measure to strengthen the population. Indeed, one of the measures agreed by the European Council is to gradually increase the percentage of glass eels retained in the EU for restocking efforts. This measure is now likely to be supported by the effects of the CITES-listing. After years of debate, several international measures are finally taken to protect the European eel, raising hopes among conservation interests as well as fishermen.
About CITES: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. CITES entered in force on 1 July 1975 and today more than 30,000 species of animals and plants are given varying degrees of protection.
The criteria for Appendix II are: “B. It is known, or can be inferred or projected, that regulation of trade in the species is required to ensure that the harvest of specimens from the wild is not reducing the wild population to a level at which its survival might be threatened by continued harvesting or other influences.”