CITES Identification Guide to the Freshwater eels (Anguillidae) : with Focus on the European eel Anguilla anguilla

The recruitment of the European eel Anguilla anguilla has declined drastically during the last decades. One reason is that the species is widely traded and the European eel is therefore listed in Appendix II of CITES. It is also listed as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List. This identification guide aids the enforcement of the CITES listing by providing those in need to identify the European eel with the necessary protocols and background information.The guide describes suggested protocols for Customs officers, such as sampling procedures and choice of accredited institutions for species identification. Institutions shall have documented capacity for morphological and molecular identification as well as long term storage of tissue samples. The guide also details the protocols for both morphological and molecular identification.The guide includes diagnostic descriptions of the internationally most traded eel-shaped fish families and new diagnoses and a morphology-based key to all 15 eel species of the family Anguillidae, genus Anguilla. Because of intraspecific variation, morphological identification is always recommended to be coupled with molecular identification. It is recommended using a newly developed primer pair for Anguilla anguilla which also allows identification of processed eels, e.g. smoked eel. Mixed species shipments can only be detected with certainty using molecular methods