By Lachlan Forsyth
How important are looks?
Most people don't know that the long-finned eel is just as threatened as many other New Zealand animals, except unlike pigeons, penguins and parrots, eels are damned ugly.
Ugly or not, environmentalists say the fact they're being chopped up for pet food is a national shame.
“Kereru and kiwi have the same threat ranking - imagine if we were exporting those for petfood, or any sort of food," says Massey University ecologist Mike Joy. "People would be marching in the streets about that yet somehow eels slip under the radar.”
“I think it's time New Zealanders said, ‘No, these are too precious and we need to leave them alone,'” says Nic Toki of Forest and Bird.
Eels are hugely significant to Maori. They're literally the stuff of legend, but if populations continue to decline, eels may also become myth themselves.
“I did used to go eeling when I was a kid, but as soon as I found out they can live for a hundred years, that they only breed once in their whole lives somewhere off Tonga, and that their tiny babies make it all the way back to NZ, that was it, no more eeling for me. I’ll just feed them,” Mr Toki said.
“It's obviously not sustainable... and the really sad bit is the market exists because in the USA, Japan and UK, their eels are extinct, on the verge of extinction, so they're buying our eels because they've wiped their own out,” said Mr Joy.
The Ministry of Primary Industries lists long-finned eels as a commercial species, so the slimy, long-lived fish can be caught and sold commercially. Most of the 81 tonnes caught each year is for human consumption - that's been cut from 193 tonnes in 2007.
Petfood companies say they only use leftover guts, bones and skins, but a claim the eel pet food is earth-friendly has disappeared.
“As New Zealanders, we don't want to be marketing our endangered species overseas as a food for pampered pooches,” said Mr Toki.
The ministry says it awaiting further studies before reassessing the long finned eel’s quota. Read their full statement here.
But Forest and Bird's already circulating a petition to stop the long-finned eel fishery, because - let's face it - when you're that ugly, a bit of public support surely won't go amiss.
Watch the video to see Lachlan’s full report.