2026 Documentaries · Episode 52

Making billions from tiny eels

• Release date
• July 11, 2026
• Runtime
• 90 min

The European eel is threatened with extinction. But it is also a highly sought-after commodity on the global market. The trade in young eels is booming. And it’s increasingly controlled by organized crime. The film "Billion Dollar Babies — The Big Business of Eel Trafficking" tells the story of a multi-billion-dollar illegal trade, centered on one of nature’s most enigmatic creatures. Born in the Sargasso Sea near the Bermuda Triangle, the eel begins its journey of up to 5,000 kilometers to Europe — as a translucent ‘willow-leaf’ larva known as a glass eel. To this day, it remains unclear exactly how the European eel reproduces. Commercial breeding isn’t possible: every eel consumed comes from the wild.