Glass Eel Trafficking

Glass Eel Trafficking: A Green Cultural Criminology Perspective explores the complex legal and illegal trade in European eels, with a particular focus on Spain as a key site of fishing, trading, and consumption. Long prized as a culinary delicacy and increasingly regarded as a luxury food, the European eel is now critically endangered, with overexploitation playing a major role in its dramatic decline. Its inclusion in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has led to strict trade restrictions within the European Union, yet trafficking continues to flourish.

Drawing on green cultural criminology, the book examines the intertwined cultural, economic, legal, and political dimensions of glass eel trafficking. Adopting multiple perspectives, it shows how cultural practices, along with material and symbolic values, shape and sustain both legal and illegal eel trade. In doing so, it highlights the broader harms associated with glass eel trafficking, emphasizing its global reach and its consequences for marginalized local communities and nonhuman species.

Accessible to both academics and practitioners, Glass Eel Trafficking also offers practical recommendations for policymakers aimed at protecting the European eel and other vulnerable, often overlooked species from extinction. It concludes with critical insights into the drivers of legal and illegal wildlife trade, underscoring the central importance of culture in understanding and addressing these dynamics.