“Gastronomy cannot support the collapse of biodiversity. Would we put pandas on our menus?”
A European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is in risk critic of extinction: its population has fallen by more than 95% since 1980. In the Iberian Peninsula alone it has fallen by 85%.
The main factor is overfishing, intensive commercial fishing. Physical barriers (dams), pollution, climate change, or ocean currents also contribute.
At the end of last year, the Council for the Exploration of the Sea – with an urgent scientific opinion – recommended “zero catch” of the European eel in 2026.
The species may disappear soon.
But this European eel is still something that is highly desired on dishes. Especially in Northern Europe, in fillets, or in France and Spain.
No thanks
There are restaurant managers who are following this path. Not in the zero catch, but in the menu.
More and more international chefs have removed eel from their menus of its restaurants.
“Gastronomy cannot support the collapse of biodiversity. Would we put pandas on our menus? Well, the eel is more threatened than the panda”, asked Olivier Roellinger, in .
The French chef, who has already had three Michelin stars, was responsible for starting the campaign “Eel, no thanks”. And it has already been joined by several thousand renowned chefs and restaurant associations.
In Spain, 10 Michelin-starred chefs decided to follow the same path: no eels on the menu.
The European Union has already indicated to its Member States that they must have eel recovery plans. The idea is to allow at least 40% of adult eels to escape to the sea to reproduce.
And, in 2009, it had already banned all exports of European eel – although tons of glass eels are sent to East Asia every year, on the illegal market.
