Fishing for glass eels is prohibited on the French Mediterranean coast. Eel fishing of the yellow and silver stages takes place mainly in the Mediterranean lagoons and in Corsica. There are still a few river eel fishermen in the Rhone basin, but their numbers are very small due to the restrictions imposed by the administration, which refuses to give them eel fishing licences on the Rhone, despite the lifting of the bans on the eel trade that had been in place since 2007 due to the PCB contamination of the river.
Before the ban and the Eel Management Plan, more than 20 river fishermen fished for eels on the lower Rhône and the Mediterranean freshwater ponds (Vaccarès).
By 2023, there are only 10 of them left, of which only 4 have authorisations to fish for yellow and silver eels in the ponds of Vauvert and Petite Camargue.

The marine fishermen exploit the coastal lagoons which represent a total of 58,000 hectares and of which the most important are: Salses-Leucate (5800ha); Thau (7500 ha); Berre (15500 ha). In Corsica, some ponds are fished like those of Urbino, Palo or Diana. For marine fishing in lagoons, the number of licences, as elsewhere, is falling sharply. From 570 licences in 2009, it has fallen to 319 in 2019, i.e. one professional fisherman for 182 hectares of lagoon.