The Porto Prosecutor’s Office charged two people “from the Pombal region” in the district of Leiria with a crime that damages nature and a crime related to smuggling.
According to the page of the Attorney General of the District of Porto, the defendants are prohibited from “fishing, transporting goods and engaging in street trading, as well as publishing a conviction at the expense of the offender.”
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), at 01:10 am on 27 February, the suspects “were arrested by the police while transporting 131,810 eels with a total weight of 37,660 kg in the vehicle in which they were traveling. “.
“These specimens were illegally seized from the Lys River in Leiria,” the deputy said, adding that they were transported by the defendants for “onward sale to an unspecified person at a cost of about 244,790 euros.” “.
The species were detained by the police and immediately returned to their natural habitat.
The eel is “a group of fish with a generally cylindrical body to which eels and moray eels belong” and is “a species protected by the Portuguese Red List of Vertebrates, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)”.
It is “subject to international trade restrictions which, because of its volume, may jeopardize its survival or the maintenance of the general population at a level consistent with the role of the species in the ecosystems in which it is present.”
Its capture is prohibited “in all national river basins, with the exception of the Minho River, which allows it during certain periods and in a regulated manner in accordance with the provisions of the Fisheries Rules for the International Section of the Minho River.”
The eel is “in high demand in Asian markets while it is alive, whether for gastronomy or agricultural purposes, with its introduction in rice fields, or even for fattening, cultivation and subsequent export to the American continent.”
Its commercialization can reach “an extremely high price, on the order of 6,500 euros per kilogram, which contains approximately 5,000 copies.”
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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