A Bodkin eel smuggling operation is discovered halfway through the first season of the crime-based comedy drama. The way that it is revealed in the show is done rather humorously, but many viewers may be wondering whether eel smuggling is actually an illegal operation and if it’s really such a lucrative trade. At the same time, Seamus Gallagher makes a wild claim that humans don’t know much about how eels breed and that is why they are one of nature’s greatest mysteries. Here’s whether eel smuggling is real and if what Seamus said about eels is true in the Bodkin series on Netflix.
Is eel smuggling a real illegal operation?
Yes, eel smuggling is an illegal operation that is not widely known, but cases have risen over the last decade, especially in the EU.
In Bodkin, the main group of investigators find a strange smuggling operation in what looks to be an abandoned warehouse, run by Seamus Gallagher and Sean O’Shea. The journalist Dove examines one of the open barrels of water, only to fall in and scramble to get out. She then finds that there are hundreds of small eels clinging to her body and attempts to swipe them out of her hair.
As hilarious as this is, though, eel smuggling is actually no joking matter. According to a report by Europol in June 2023, the profits from trafficking glass eels can yield up to 3 billion euros in peak years. Various criminal networks coordinate the illegal fishing and trafficking of these fish from Europe to Asia, as many Asian countries consider eels as a delicacy. The organization suspects that 100 tons of glass eels are smuggled annually from EU Member States. In a joint operation spearheaded by Europol called Operation LAKE, the agency arrested over 250 persons responsible for eel trafficking.
So the idea that Seamus and Sean would be trafficking in eels isn’t actually that far-fetched, as silly as it sounds. The same goes for them being caught by law enforcement. That said, it’s unclear whether Sean O’Shea is arrested as a part of the operation, since the final scenes see him living with Mrs. O’Shea at the bed and breakfast.
Do we know how eels reproduce? Is what Seamus says true?
Yes, despite what Seamus claims, scientists know how eels reproduce, at least when they’re in captivity.
In the fourth episode of Bodkin, Seamus negotiates with two yakuza representatives as they attempt to purchase eels from the smuggler. Seamus responds with a lengthy tangent about how eels are a mystery and that we don’t know how they breed. The speech essentially amounts to him avoiding the question and saying that it’s a good question whether he fishes for eels or not. But then he quickly changes his tune when he hears the female negotiator say she will purchase one kilo of eels for 1300 Euros.
However, the claim Seamus makes about eels is exaggerated. Eels have been bred in captivity and so their reproduction has been observed, with female eels releasing millions of eggs in the water that are then fertilized by male eels. Much of the mystery about eel reproduction stems from zoologists and other scientists not having found the exact breeding grounds for many eel species in the wild. Until it is observed, how reproduction occurs with these eels still technically remains a scientific theory, though it’s just a matter of time. Case in point, according to a report in Nature, the breeding ground for the critically-endangered European eel was found in 2022, confirming that it is in the Sargasso Sea as originally suspected.
Either way, the point of what Seamus claims about eels isn’t necessarily about whether it’s true and more about him trying to feel out the two potential yakuza buyers. Unfortunately, he accepts the deal before learning later in the series that they were actually Interpol agents in disguise.
