The Dutch Sustainable Eel Sector Foundation (DUPAN) intends to replenish inland waters in the Netherlands with glass eels to increase withering eel stocks.

 

But Professor of Aquaculture and Fisheries at Wageningen University Johan Verreth said success is not guaranteed and he recommended resorting to aquaculture instead.

 

"It's hard to say if this will have any effect," Verreth said. "If it's true that 12-20% of these glass eels eventually make it to adulthood, as the foundation asserts, then that's quite a lot. That would provide scope for a small amount of fishing and breeding."

 

Fishers and breeders are having a particularly rough time due to the dwindling stocks, as the government is trying to find solutions which harm these particular target groups, he said.

 

Verreth believes that the deeply problematic eel situation in Europe has probably been caused by a combination of factors.

 

Huge numbers of fish are crushed by hydro-electric power stations, he said, and there might be more that can be done apart from what officials have tried so far.

 

If the sale of eels comes to a halt in the Netherlands, a part of the national culture would disappear and the market may well vanish forever. Verreth said this is why it is positive to preserve eel consumption on a limited scale.

 

The real solution to the problem of dwindling stocks, he declared, is to propagate and breed eels in captivity.

 

"In this way you can look after and restore the wild eel population. The domesticated animals can then be used for consumption," he concluded. 

 

The European eel has been eaten to the edge of extinction and is consequently now subject to strict cross-border trade certification and quota requirements set in 2007 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).