The European eel (Anguilla Anguilla) It is a catalog of migrating species, with a complex biological cycleIn which the extent to which the various factors that threaten their population (dams and obstacles for migration, fish, climate change and oceanic currents, pollutants, viral infections and parasites are still unknown …).
The species is reproduced in the Sargazos -SeaWhy the larva “leptocéfala” is dragged by the ocean currents to the coasts of Europe and North Africa, where they transform into Angula, a phase in which it can be found in the estuaria, estuaria and mouths of the rivers.
From here, Angula rises upstream and passes most of his adult life on the rivers to reach the silver eel phase, which is when it grows up and migrate back to the sea of Sargazos to reproduce and die.


The European eel is considered a single population
Earnings: Maybe if it was a more charismatic animal, His dramatic decline would have awakened a greater social consciousness, as happened to the brown bear or the Iberian lynx. But the European eel, a native species such as these mammals, lies on the edge of the abyss and does not seem to activate an alarm.
Not just that, but It continues to fish and consume in restaurants at more and more priceless prices Because there is more shortage, following a “fully perverse market mechanism” Miguel Clavero, a researcher at the Biological Station CSIC Doñana.
The eels and European Angula “It takes a long time with the approaching risk of extinction and we are increasingly being deposited in that situation”Explains this scientist, who has been studying the animal’s evolution for years. In 2008 it was declared a critical dying danger, the category of maximum danger in the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)What a “threatening” risk is to disappear.
This fish carries «Almost 20 years in that state and there is no sign of improvement anywhere, and there has been a deterioration of most of the distribution area of the species«, Details Clavero. Since the 80s, The European eel population has been reduced by 98%According to a study published in the magazine Science In 2021. Another study, conducted by Clavero and scientists from the CSIC and the Ebro Delta Natural Park, concluded last January that the catches had fallen In 78% At this location only between 2000 and 2023Something that is explained, in addition to over -exploitation, through the irruption of an invasive species such as the blue crab.
Of food for the poor to demand their shortage
There are various causes behind the decline. On the one hand there is the loss of its natural habitat, up to 80% on the Iberian peninsula: The eel can no longer overcome the vast majority of rivers for the construction of dams. Other problems are added to this, such as the presence of a parasite of the Asian eel or plastic pollution, but the determining factor, recalls this researcher, is the fact that it continues to fish.
“Commercial production is not only weakened, but is also accentuated,” says Clavero, since “all scarce, has become an object of desire For those who consume food to think about their prestige ».
All this when The eel was “a food of the people”So usual in Spain, says legend, even feeding pigs and chickens. The situation when the custom of eating Angulas began to expand, breeding the eel, something of Basque culinary culture, but which became popular throughout the country.
Worldwide something similar happened in the 70, when the “use of Japanese cuisine” was globalized, where the eel is very popularThey influenced his “collapse” ten years later. Because the eel is scarce, it is also more exclusive, which is reflected in the price of his Fry Kilo, Anguas, which swing around 1,000 euros in Spain.
There is even a total ban
Therefore, Clavero and around 300 scientists signed a manifesto in 2023 Claim a total closure in the fishing quota of a species that is more threatened than the Iberian imperial eagle or the Panda -Beer.
“It is really incomprehensible that administrations do not stop this radically,” he says. With other marine species, the exploitation stopped long before the dramatic state of preservation of this animal reached. This is, for example, the case of the Cantabrian AnchoviesWhere “a total closure of the entire fleet was forced” for three years.
The difference is that there is no profitability loss with the eel and the angle, even if the recordings decrease. «Because they upload a lot of price, no matter how before 100 kilos of fishing and now 2It is still profitable, “says Clavero. The power of a «has been added to thislobby Important »of the European eel, he adds.
There is a trend from the chef chefs that remove the Angula from their letter
This scientist remembers that one Total ban on catches would not have a major impact on “families and companies” They are dedicated to fish because there are “zero fishermen in Spain who live exclusively” from the eel, but instead this stopping would have a “huge impact” for the species. Much of the exploitation is illegal because it is performed for export to Asian markets, something that is forbidden in EU countries.
It would be good to also stop the catches for the fish exploitation itself, which in the case of eel and Angula in Spain is usually traditional. «If we want tradition, you have to stop, Because if the species is lost, the activity is lost »insists.
Some have already moved to save this fish. Basque chef Pedro Subijanaconsidered one of the best in the world, He joined twenty prestigious chef in 2023 Until there is a total moratorium.
European eel, a unique ‘journey’ in the world
“It’s like we eat around 30 or 40 Iberian lynx every year”illustrates this scientist. Many studies emphasize that “Ugly” animals get less attention Scientific or funds for conservation, and Clavero believes that this can influence that there is a lower “empathy” by an animal that looks like a marine snake.
But yes, he acknowledges that it is difficult for him to understand this lack of empathy. «I consider it a spectacular animal, far beyond what a bear or a lynx is, It is a spectacle of nature and it is difficult for me to see that it is not considered in society », points.
The truth is that the European eel has An “amazing” life cycle, an “epic”, as Félix called Rodríguez de la Fuente In the national radio programs that he devoted him to him half a century ago.
This animal was born for 140 million years, In the Sargazos Sea, an Atlantic area near Cuba and Florida, and migrates to Europe In the form of a larva dragged through the currents on a journey that can last two years. Once here, first with Angulas and then mature as an eel, he spends a few years on coasts, river and wetlands. “The eels can be very long, they can be 20 years old here and there are a few those 80 or 100 years old,” says Clavero.
But the most amazing part of the journey, according to this expert, is the return. The eel returns “on a different path”, without knowing why, to the same place where they were born. And all that does without eating, they become one Swimming machine that does not stop at 4,000 or 6,000 kilometers that he even has the sea of Sargazos ».
Once back they reproduce, spawn and die. Their descendants start the journey again, without a paragon with other species. The big question now is when the eel can continue to do this tour. The animal could disappear before we fully understand its fascinating behavior.