Le Figaro Nantes
Almost half a ton of fry. The national gendarmerie and the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) seized nearly 300 kilos of glass eels poached on the Atlantic coasts on Wednesday morning. In a major deployment which would have involved more than a hundred people, the authorities intervened in seven Traveler camps located in the Loire-Atlantique and Vendée territories, then placed six people in police custody at the end of the searches, report our colleagues from France Bleu.
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, the OFB confirms that a legal procedure entrusted to the Nantes public prosecutor's office is underway. At least one camp raided would be located in the Nantes metropolitan area. Vehicles and large sums of cash were also reportedly seized by the authorities.
More than 5000 euros per kilo
Eel fry, glass eels are the subject of significant international trafficking. Numerous criminal networks carry out the poaching and then smuggling of these small, fine, translucent fish, most of which are exported to Asia, which is very fond of this eel fish. One of these networks, dismantled in May 2023 after two years of investigation, would have sold nearly 4.2 tonnes of glass eels fished outside of quotas, between 2021 and 2023. According to French customs, glass eels are traded for more than 5,000 euros per kilo. The species is classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.