The Eel Market Extinction Vortex

Abstract

The market extinction vortex is a self-fueled process by which a species is more intensively exploited as it becomes rarer, due to human eagerness to pay for the possession or use of scarce items. We use a long-term price-abundance longitudinal monitoring of glass eels in Spain to show that a market extinction vortex is pushing the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) to extinction. Glass eel landings increased from the mid-20th until the late 1970s, to then decline sharply, while glass eel price augmented exponentially along a century (1925-2024). The collapse in glass eel landings was linked to acceleration in the increase of prices, so that the overall value of constantly declining glass eel landings has remained relatively constant. There is an urgent need to avoid perverse market processes related to rarity valuation, ideally establishing limitations or a moratorium on eel commercialization, for the eel to escape this vortex.