Export Of Severn Eels To Russia Criticised As 'Bonkers'

Millions of critically endangered eels have been exported from the Severn estuary to Russia this year and conservationists fear export quotas will be increased next year.

- Patrick Barkham

A tonne of glass eels, the young elvers that swim into European estuaries from the Sargasso Sea each spring, was flown to Kaliningrad this year, double the amount exported to the Russian port the previous year.

Eel industry sources have told the Guardian that next year's application could increase to 5 tonnes. One tonne of European glass eels amounts to about 3 million fish.

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a protected, red-listed species, with the number of elvers migrating into European rivers having declined by 95% since the 1980s.

In 2010 the EU banned the trade of European eels outside their natural range in Europe. Since Brexit it has been impossible for the UK to export glass eels to EU countries. But a legal loophole makes it permissible to catch and export elvers to non-EU destinations in their natural European range if they are used for conservation purposes, such as restocking lakes or rivers.