Allegations prompt calls to end eel export scheme
Getty ImagesA company that exports elvers is worried it could go out of business due to allegations against its sole remaining customer.
UK Glass Eels, based in Gloucestershire, is supplying stock to Goodfish, based in Russia, as part of a project to recover and conserve the population of glass eels in lagoons in Poland and Lithuania.
However, a petition calling for the supply to be stopped has been launched by a conservationist, claiming that the exported species are farmed for food, and the UK government is yet to allow the exports.
Goodfish denies the allegations and said it "guarantees" that, despite some fishing quotas, the elvers are only used for conservation purposes.
Elvers captured in the River Severn are transported to Kaliningrad in Russia.
The juvenile glass eels are then restocked in the Vistula Lagoon in Poland and the Curonian Lagoon in Lithuania, which Russia shares.
Both lagoons provide the creatures with "pristine habitats" and "unrestricted migratory pathways" to the Baltic Sea, according to UK Glass Eels.
The project has been running for three years under managing director Peter Wood.
He said the impact of Brexit has been a "disaster" for the business, and the only remaining market involves sending millions of elvers from the River Severn to Russia.
However, the UK government has not yet issued a permit allowing him to export there.
"If we don't get an export licence this year, the business will close forever," Mr Wood said.
"It's a terrible shame, the UK has been exporting glass eels since 1907."
He added that the Russian project is "very, very well organised" and the company has invested in equipment to ensure that the conservation scheme is successful.
But one conservationist began questioning the authenticity of the project.
"The more I started questioning it, the more details of the inadequacies of the whole scheme started to emerge," said Richard Fleming, a former elver fisherman.
He contacted fisheries and scientists in Lithuania, Poland, Belarus and said they showed him "defects" in the company's paperwork and project.
"It's a very flaky scheme," he added.
Mr Fleming launched a petition calling for the exports to stop, which has amassed more than 50,000 signatures.
Andrew Kerr, founder and chairman of Sustainable Eel Group, supports Mr Fleming's petition.
"The future is conservation fishing - we get the eels out the river, we get the eels into classrooms, we rebuild the human relationship with eels and we need the fishermen to work with us to do that," he said.
In a statement, Yuri Vinokurov, the executive manager of Goodfish, said: "This project is designed to preserve and restore the eel population in the bays of the Kaliningrad region.
"Goodfish guarantees that the glass eel larvae obtained for the purpose of stocking the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons will not be used for other purposes."
A spokesperson for the company added that there are agreed quotas for fishing, limiting commercial fishers to catch a certain amount of a particular species. The company has agreed to not exceed the quota.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said it will make an announcement on eel export licences shortly.
A spokesperson for the government department said: "We have robust rules and laws in place to safeguard protected species, such as glass eels.
"Any applications to export them are scrutinised thoroughly to ensure they are legal and sustainable."
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