A quirky campaign to rescue Somerset's vanishing eels is making waves in Glastonbury – with a mix of science, old traditions and help from celebrity supporters.

The Somerset Eel Recovery Project is fighting to bring back the critically endangered European eel to local waterways, including the River Brue, where they once swam in their thousands. The campaign also hopes to revive the folk stories, songs and customs that made eels a staple of Somerset life.

Backers include punk rocker turned clean water activist Feargal Sharkey and TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who now calls himself an "eel legend" after joining the cause. "They are a keystone species with a remarkable natural history, that deserves our respect and our custodianship," said Hugh.

Eels used to be so common they were paid as rent to Glastonbury Abbey. Today, they're almost gone. In nearby Bridgwater Bay, glass eel numbers have plummeted by 99% since the 1980s.

Project co-founder Vanessa Becker-Hughes says the work is about more than biology. From storytelling and river blessings to hands-on rope-making sessions, the aim is to get people talking about eels again – and spotting them.

One of the eel passes with a ramp for young eels, called elvers, to reach new areas of their habitat. Photo credit: Phil Brewin

"We make straw ropes, which we put over barriers. They get wet and the little glass eels use them to climb up and over," she said. "But more than that – it gets people to visit these weirs. They notice the water. They count the eels. They start to care."

Kids are getting involved too. Last year, 60 eel tanks were installed in local schools, giving pupils a front-row seat to the mysterious lifecycle of these long, wriggly fish.

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The group recently released eels into the River Brue near Glastonbury and wants to remind people that saving wildlife also means saving local identity. "If we lose the eel, we lose a sense of who we are," said Andrew Kerr, chair of the Sustainable Eel Group.

Becker-Hughes says there's still hope. "Each spring tide still brings new arrivals," she said. "With every story told, every rope woven and every child watching a glass eel wriggle up a straw ladder, a small bit of magic comes back to Somerset."