In 2010, the European Union banned export of eels in response to population decline. The sanction contributed to what writer Rene Ebersole, in a 2018 National Geographic article, called a “sushi crisis,” begun when juvenile American eels – glass eels, or elvers, which are needed to seed aquaculture farms – became scarce, “putting supplies of unagi, eel grilled with soy sauce and served at sushi joints around the world, in danger.”

The price of the American eel skyrocketed, and soon after, smugglers began trafficking the valuable species.