Swedish eel fishing will be completely stopped during the coming winter months. The greatest impact will be in the Öresund, where eels usually wander past on their way out of the Baltic Sea during this period.
"Don’t catch any eels at all” say the scientists, if you want to have any eels left in the future. But according to Sofia Brockmark at the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (HaV), very few people fish for eel in Sweden and they don’t catch very many.
I don’t usually go around picking fights with market traders. But the other day, a stall holder managed to ruin the Christmas mood. He was selling endangered animals wrapped in plastic, with Jingle Bells playing in the background.
The eel is critically endangered, and now research says that all human impact on the eel must stop. But in southern Sweden, eel fishing is seen as a cultural tradition, and every autumn large parties are organized where it is cooked and served in different ways. How is it that Swedes continue to eat the critically endangered species?
