Japan's notorious Yakuza crime syndicate is trafficking in a lucrative trade using couriers who smuggle the product into Japan at alarming rates. They're not dealing drugs, they're dealing eels. The global illegal trade of freshwater eels is worth more than five billion dollars says Ellen Ruppel-Shell, Professor Emeritus of Science Journalism at Boston University. She says eels are one of the most mysterious and remarkable species on the planet. Shell details the efforts to crackdown on the illegal trade and efforts to save some species from extinction in her book, Slippery Beast, A True Crime Natural History with Eels.
