Fingerlings

Despite the cites ban on exports
Glass eels as they are called
Are being caught and exported
Which should be overhauled
Baby eels or elvers
Unlicensed but can be
Smuggled out of the UK
And sold its seems to me

lots of foreign buyers
Will pay a princely sum
To get their hands on glass eels
Orders they do come
From CHina and from Russia
The market apparently
Is now up in the millions
Where Asia is the key

£1000 per kilo
The going rate we hear
Shipped via Lithuania
And then out to Korea
Its an endangered species
But With money to be made
The smugglers are on the case
An ever growing trade

They are going out in suitcases
A really shadowy act
Taken from the Severn
Apparently being tracked
Ending up in China
Its an undisputed claim
But More and more are coming
But no one gets the blame

It seems its open season
And a major crime
Is happening under our noses
Almost all the time
We are losing the glass eels
And a few are making lots
Clearly snubbing CITES
And, calling the shots