25 May, 2020 @ 12:16
1 min read

Illegal eel fisheries that feed Asian black market shut down in Spain’s Andalucia

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POLICE in Spain have shut down 16 illegal operations that were fishing for baby eels in the environmentally sensitive mouth of the River Guadalquivir.

Baby eels, or elvers, are a highly lucrative catch, especially on the Asian black market.

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SEIZED: Police hauled in illegal nets.

Criminal gangs have made millions smuggling the still live creatures by air to sell on in Asian markets, as reported by the Olive Press.

But fishermen have to use nets with a mesh of just 1mm to catch the glass eels that fetch the highest price. These scoop up all aquatic wildlife along with the elvers, causing untold damage to the ecosystem.

The Guardia Civil carried out the second phase of operation Ave Fenix, saying the practice represents a serious threat to life, biodiversity, legal fishing, river traffic and the safety of navigation.

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RIGS: Elver fishing cause untold damage to the environment.

Eighteen complaints have been made and 16 sets of specialised fishing rigs seized.

The mouth of the Guadalquivir is a fishing reserve, declared as a very sensitive biological and ecological area.

Fishing for endangered glass eels is totally prohibited in the rivers and coastal waters of Andalucia.

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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