1. Dealers looking to illegally export European eels from the UK have been exposed by BBC Countryfile.

Posing as a UK fisherman who had legally caught the eels on the River Severn in Gloucestershire, presenter Joe Crowley was approached by Chinese and Russian buyers and a UK exporter. They were prepared to pay up to seven times the normal catch price if the eels could be sent out of the EU. An export ban on the endangered species has been in place since 2010. Organised crime gangs are said to be smuggling about 350 million live baby eels – or ‘glass’ eels – every year to Asia, where they are farmed and sold as a delicacy. Andrew Kerr, of the Sustainable Eel Group said the illegal trade in glass eels, also known as elvers, was estimated to be worth about £3bn a year. Mr Kerr told the BBC: “It’s the most trafficked animal by number and by value.

2. Yorkshire Water does its bit to save critically endangered eels

Process Engineering ‘Yorkshire Water is completing a £2 million project to save one of Britain’s fastest-declining fish species.   It has created three schemes on the Rivers Derwent, Hull and Esk to prevent the at-risk European Eel from inadvertently swimming into water treatment works at Ruswarp, Loftsome Bridge and Tophill Low. Ben Gillespie, lead environment advisor at Yorkshire Water, said: “This investment will really help to make a difference to the struggling eel population. It will enable the fish to migrate freely up and down the River Hill and avoid getting trapped in the River Derwent and Esk.” He added the work would form part of the authority’s £10 million ‘fish pass’ programme and permanently improve the aquatic environment of Yorkshire’s rivers.’

3. Slippery challenge: can the European eel be saved from oblivion?

Damian Carrington The Guardian – An overview article on the eel’s plight

Once plentiful, European eel numbers have plummeted in recent decades and it is now critically endangered, making it more at risk of extinction than giant pandas or elephants.

On the tree-fringed river bank, sunlight filters through the leaves and reveals the captured eel’s dark green sheen and pale belly and its narrow, dragon-like head. Eels like this need urgent protection and Walker, the lead aquatic ecologist at RSK consultants, is leading a project to identify the best habitats. Click here to read more