Petition against commercial export of elvers

There is a petition being run against the commercial export of baby eels (i.e. elvers).  You will find the petition at https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-the-commercial-export-of-baby-eels.

You can help by:

• signing the petition if you haven’t already done so
• encouraging anyone else you know to do so, and
• writing to the following people NOW:

jesse.norman.mp@parliament.uk
WIGGINB@parliament.uk
martin.james@environment-agency.gov.uk

chris.bainger@environment-agency.gov.uk

We don’t know how much you know about the state in which the population of the European Eels is.  What follows is some basic information about it:

• the population of the European Eel has fallen by 95% over the last 25 years and is CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.  The IUCN (International Union of Conservation of Nature) has had the European Eel on the Red List for a number of years.  We are witnessing the potential extinction of a species.
• Despite this, the Environment Agency continue to license the capture and export of elvers!
• In the last few years in the UK over 300,000,000 elvers have been exported for human consumption abroad (they are a Far Eastern delicacy) — and many, many millions of elvers are exported illegally to the Far East.  A further 300,000,000 or more elvers have been exported to Scandinavia, Europe and Russian states for stocking.
• A further many, many millions have been lost through harvesting, storage, transport and use — legal and illegal.
• The majority come from the Severn river basin and estuary, which impact the river Usk eel population.
• To give you an idea on the impact, in one year 50 tonnes of elvers are reputed to have been caught and exported mostly to the Far East.  This year, late in the elver season, only 1 kilo has been caught for the entire river Wye (we don’t have figures for the river Usk).

In addition the Angling Trust calls for the commercial ban of eel and elver fishing: http://anglingtrust.net/news.asp?section=29&itemid=1481