Cefas' Fish Health Inspectors support investigation into smuggling of hundreds of endangered eels
10 February 2025
A man has been sentenced after smuggling hundreds of endangered European eels into Wales from Dublin. Stopped by Border Force officers at Holyhead Port in January 2024, an HGV driver had 37 boxes of eels hidden in a pallet locker beneath his trailer. The European eel, Anguilla anguilla, is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN red-list of threatened species, meaning it is at extremely high risk of extinction and as such, it cannot be legally exported outside of the EU.
Cefas’ Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) and UK Border Force have a longstanding working relationship when it comes to aquatic animals. As such, Border Force Officers called the FHI for assistance upon discovering the consignment which had been smuggled in the underside cargo area of a lorry containing hens’ eggs.
The eels that were still alive were examined by FHI’s Enforcement Lead Jon Hulland who said, “It was obviously a distressing scene to find over half a ton of European eels in such a state. They were bagged with no water and no concern for their welfare. Fellow FHI colleague Josh Gray and I had to make the difficult decision to euthanise the animals on welfare grounds.”.
The illegal trade in European eels is well known with the FHI’s Jon Hulland and Debbie Murphy playing a pivotal role in the successful prosecution of an eel smuggler in 2020 (Seafood salesman smuggled £53m worth of live eels out of UK - BBC News). The FHI remains a key partner in the global efforts to disrupt and frustrate the trade and bring the perpetrators to justice.
A joint agency approach to this issue across Cefas, Border Force, National Wildlife Crime Unit, INTERPOL and others is essential in ensuring that this critically endangered species can survive. But with demand from Asian markets seeing profits in the £millions, the European eel will continue to need all the help we can provide.
After a joint investigation by the North Wales Police Rural Crime Team, National Wildlife Crime Unit and the FHI, the driver was charged with customs and animal welfare offences and given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months and £1,500 fine and 150 hours unpaid work , for causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
Key for freshwater ecosystems
European eels play a key role in freshwater ecosystems by helping to regulate other species' populations through predation and by maintaining freshwater biodiversity. They are also a critical food source for many birds, mammals and large fish.
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