A two-month moratorium on eel fishing in Holland took force on October 1, making Dutch professional fishermen publicly predict their soon demise.
The European Union has set a goal of a 40 per cent escapement, and the member states were two years ago asked to submit national recovery plans to that end to the Commission by January 1 this year. The Dutch plan included a two-year ban, which was scrapped, and then reinstated after the Commission had found the plan insufficient.
The government would make available 700,000 Euros a year to compensate 240 fishing businesses affected by the ban, but the Fisherman’s Association said it would still “obliterate family businesses that have earned a living from fishing for many generations”.
“It is also in the interests of the industry that the eel population is allowed to recover,” Dutch Agriculture and Environment Minister Gerda Verburg remarked when announcing the ban.
Noting that “eels are just as much at threat of extinction as the mountain gorilla, the tiger or the panda”, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has welcomed the initiative.
“To eat eel on bread is like eating a panda sandwich,” it said, pointing out that the population of adult eels has dropped by 95 percent in the Netherlands in 50 years.
Smoked eel on bread has long been a favourite snack in Holland.
From next year, the ban will be extended to three months, running from September 1. It will be reviewed by the Dutch government in 2012.