4/8
Think about that: people rescue them, nurture them for a year — and bureaucracy could still kill them. This is preventable destruction of a species.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES

SEGs Shield

The Sustainable Eel Group (SEG) presents itself as a conservation body.
In reality, it functions as a PR shield for continued exploitation of a critically endangered species.

#EelDeal2030
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

SEGs Deception

“After repeated failures—ISEAL suspension, court appearances, and lapsed certifications etc —the Sustainable Eel Group has gone into hiding. This exposes their false claims and a fake system built on deception.”

#EelDeal2030
#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Eelwashing

9/9
This isn’t sustainability—it’s certification capture. When industry designs, funds, and benefits from a “green” label, it’s greenwashing. The system protects Europe’s eel trade, not the eel.

#EelDeal2030
@DEFRAUk
#Traceability
@ISEALAlliance
#SaveTheEels

6/9
SEG admits DUPAN funds “sustainable” fishing, trade, and restocking—and has paid certification renewals for Dutch firms. The industry doesn’t just participate. It bankrolls the label.

#Accountability
@DEFRA
#EelGate
#SaveTheEels

SEGs Circular Control

1/9
SEG claims it doesn’t issue “restocking certificates.” That’s a technical dodge. Restocking is built into the SEG Standard—allowing eel companies to sell sustainability claims off the back of stocking rivers with farmed eels.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels

3/13
Who was responsible?
Which operators or businesses handled a critically endangered species negligently?
If rules were broken, names matter

#SaveTheEels
#Traceability
@SteveReedMP

10/13
Displaying expired or lapsed certifications as current inflates credibility and misleads the public. This is classic greenwashing: pretending protections exist where they don’t, while the species teeters on the brink of extinction.
#SaveTheEels #Greenwashing #ICES

4/5
SEG says illegality rises without certification.
If traffickers were certified, their entire assurance model collapses.

@ISEALAlliance
#EelDeal2030
@DEFRAUK
#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
@ICESmarine

5/6
SEG certifies companies, not individual eels. That means you can buy from a certified operator and still end up with an eel that doesn’t meet sustainability or traceability standards. Paperwork is not conservation.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

9/10
This looks like greenwashing enabled by poor management and lack of transparency. When sustainability bodies fail, it is the species — not the organisation — that pays the price.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES

5/7
Conclusion: Calling the 2025 eel restocking program “sustainable” is misleading.
If we want healthy wild eel populations, restocking needs priority over farm profits, not the other way around.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES

4/7
The low restocking rate isn’t due to scarcity.
Glass eels are abundant, but the market favors low prices and weak demand for restocking, benefiting farms financially rather than conservation.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

7/9
French “restocking” is misleading — a huge number of eels die after release due to injuries from push/trawl nets. Calling it restocking doesn’t fix the problem. Things need to change to protect these populations.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES

10/12
Some leading chefs are speaking out. Andoni Luis Aduriz calls serving angulas “an aberration.” Ángel León says chefs shouldn’t cook them at all: “It’s absurd hedonism. They don’t even taste of anything without garlic and chili.”

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

9/12
For nearly two decades, ICES — the EU’s top scientific advisory body — has recommended the same urgent actions: zero catches, eliminate all human-caused mortality, and restore rivers. Yet the European fishery remains open.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

7/8
After years of SEG activity, there is still no clear evidence of recovery: no sustained improvement in recruitment, escapement, or spawning stock biomass.

@DEFRA
#EelGate
#SaveTheEels

5/8
Instead of pointing to improving recruitment, escapement, or biomass, he points to governance failure and polarization—because there are no biological success signals to point to.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

8/12
In the UK, a major driver of eel mortality is man-made barriers and weirs. These structures block migration, trap eels upstream, and prevent them from reaching the sea to spawn.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels

5/12
In September 2025, SEG was suspended by ISEAL following an independent review that identified failures in its system and compliance. A serious blow to the credibility of eel “sustainability” claims.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

7/8
Sustainability labels mean nothing if they don’t stop consumption when survival is at stake.
If regulators allow certification schemes to override science, they are actively enabling extinction.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES

11/12
The claim that fishing bans only lead to illegal fishing is a familiar industry talking point. It is not a justification for exploiting a critically endangered species.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

9/12
Lines like “there are more eels than humans” are rhetoric, not science. Absolute numbers are meaningless when spawning success, resilience, and recruitment remain critically impaired.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels

5/12
The article repeats the claim that there is “no evidence” fishing or habitat loss caused the eel collapse. This is simply false. There is extensive evidence of cumulative, human-driven mortality across every stage of the eel’s life cycle.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

13/13
Conclusion: 1 tonne of glass eels → 200 tonnes of adult biomass → $10–20 million potential.
With weak enforcement, poor restocking uptake, and the SEG standard unable to stop this, the European market will remain exploited.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#GreenwashingAlert

5/9
Turn 1kg of glass eels into 3,000kg of large eels. Thousands of wild juveniles become hundreds of big eels. It looks like “saving eels,” but it’s inflating numbers for profit.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES

8/12
The marzipan eel story accidentally exposes the truth: when real eels disappeared, people adapted. SEG, however, is still pretending adaptation isn’t necessary.

#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

9/9
The European eel needs real protection, not greenwashing and silence.
Accountability isn’t optional.
It’s overdue.

Time for change
Time for real recovery

@Feargal_Sharkey
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES

9/10
SEG certification does not guarantee legal compliance or species recovery. Most of France’s catch still never reaches rivers, yet the fishery is marketed as “responsible” and “sustainable.”

@WillemDekker
#EelGate
#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing

2/10
France lands ~60 tonnes of glass eels annually, the lion’s share of the EU total. Legal restocking requires 36 tonnes, about 108 million juvenile eels. That’s what should return to rivers to give the species a chance.

#SaveTheEels
#Greenwashing
#ICES