Restaurants serve critically endangered eels despite warnings

Restaurants across Denmark are holding eel feasts this autumn, but the fish is critically endangered and should not be eaten, a marine biologist told DR.

At Gjøl Kro, an inn in North Jutland near the Limfjord, diners can pay 269 kroner for unlimited fried eel with potatoes, parsley sauce and beetroot. The inn’s kitchen manager, Palle Jensen, said eel was once a regular menu item, but is now served only for special occasions. Demand remains high, he said.

Eels have become expensive as their numbers have fallen. The species is classified as critically endangered across Europe, and estimates suggest the number of young eels, known as glass eels, has dropped to between 1 and 10 per cent of its level in the 1970s.

Fishing is heavily restricted, and most eels served in Danish restaurants are farmed. Jensen said the eels served at Gjøl Kro are farmed, arguing that the inn does not buy from someone who is depleting the local fjord.

But Thomas Kirk Sørensen, a marine biologist with WWF Denmark, said people should not eat either wild-caught or farmed eels. Farmed eels begin as glass eels caught in the wild, he said, which puts pressure on the overall population.

It remains legal to catch eels in Denmark, although only commercial fishers may do so in Danish waters. WWF and other environmental and animal welfare organisations are calling for a complete ban, which Sørensen said is the only way to ensure the species survives.

There are currently no plans to ban eel fishing or consumption, Environment Minister Maria Reumert Gjerding told DR in a written response. She pointed to a reduction in the eel catch quota, approved by a broad parliamentary majority in July: Danish fishers caught 125 tonnes in 2025, while the new limit is 40 tonnes.

Work is also under way on a monitoring fishery planned for 2027 to improve data and protection of the eel population. In the 1960s, when eel fishing in Denmark was at its peak, around 4,000 tonnes were caught each year.