European eels are critically endangered in wild populations and farmed in recirculating systems with specific welfare challenges from their unusual biology and dependence on wild-caught glass eels.
European eel aquaculture creates a welfare paradox where farming depends entirely on capturing wild glass eels, directly contributing to the decline of a critically endangered species. Wild glass eel capture causes significant mortality from handling and transport. Farmed eels live for many years in intensive recirculating systems that restrict their natural migratory behaviour. The inability to achieve captive breeding means that every farmed eel represents a captured wild individual, making the welfare and conservation concerns inseparable.