Croatian police reported on Thursday that two nationals of South Korea had been arrested at Zagreb Airport trying to smuggle over a quarter of million of baby eels out of the country.

The two men, aged 38 and 47, reportedly had plans to fly out of the country on Wednesday morning, when customs control officers found about 252,000 specimens of fry of the critically endangered European eel species, packed into eight suitcases.

The value of baby eals confiscated is estimated at 3 million kuna (€400,000), and police reported they were taken to the Zagreb Zoo for further care. The two Koreans were put into custody and reported to the local court in Velika Gorica on the outskirts of Zagreb.

Since the 1980s the stock of European eels, which spawn in the Sargasso Sea area in the North Atlantic, have massively declined by 90 percent, thought to be due to the disappearance of their natural habitats such as wetlands.

Due to the decline in eel populations, European governments introduced strict laws and quotas on eel catch, but the demand caused eel prices to skyrocket in Asian markets in recent years, creating a lucrative market for traffickers.

European Union law enforcement agencies estimate that as many as 100 tonnes of baby eels are trafficked to countries oputside the EU each year, to end up in restaurants in China and Japan, where it is prized as a delicacy and an aphrodisiac.

In Croatia, the area best known for eel fishing and eel-based cuisine is the Neretva river estuary on the country's southern Adriatic coast, where a fish stew made with frog meat and eel is a cherished traditional dish.

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