NIEUWENDIJK, Netherlands: On an autumn morning on a small Dutch canal, fisherman Aart van der Waal pulls up a fish trap stuffed with squirming eels—not for the pot, but as part of a bold initiative to save the critically endangered species.

Weighed and recorded, the serpentine swimmers are then carried several hundred metres (yards) across a dike in a plastic bucket, before being released back into the water on the other side with an unceremonious splash.

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