The eel risks extinction.The chefs' revolt to protect it:«If you see it on a restaurant menu, don't order it and complain»

The message of the starred Mauro Colagreco to La Stampa, while his Relais&Chateaux colleagues announce that they will no longer put it on the menus

In a few years there will no longer be eel in Italian dishes.The animal that enriches the cuisine of Piedmont in the North East up to the Comacchio Valleys now risks extinction.He talks about it today The Press, also explaining the decision of some chefs to eliminate it from the menus.The first cause lies in the hand of man on the environment, with continuous damming of waterways which prevent young specimens from swimming upstream and older ones from approaching the sea for reproduction.In Italy there is a stop period for fishing - including marketing - which varies from region to region.Despite this, the numbers are decreasing.Over the last 30 years, explains the Turin newspaper, the number of European eels has fallen by more than 90 percent.Since 2009, the animal has been on the IUCN Red List as a critically endangered species.And its reproduction in captivity is not possible, given that eel farming is based on the collection of small specimens in the wild.In Asia, this white gold covers a need for 2 billion young fish caught per year.«Eel was on my menu, as in that of many other gourmet restaurants, but I didn't realize that it was endangered – Mauro Colagreco, one of the most renowned chefs in the world, tells La Stampa -.When I found out, thanks to the alert from Ethic Ocean, I immediately removed it from the menu at the Mirazur in Menton.Now the biggest challenge is to put pressure on EU ministers to adopt adequate measures.We have already made ourselves heard in the past, with our campaigns for bluefin tuna and against electrofishing.We are ready to raise our voice again."And again:«If you see eel on a restaurant menu, don't order it and tell the waiter that you are surprised to find it.If they answer that they are farmed eels, explain that "farmed eels" are actually young specimens caught in the wild and bred in captivity, because to date it is not possible to reproduce eels in captivity."

(photo by henry perks on Unsplash)