By HIRONORI KATO/ Staff Writer
July 5, 2024 at 18:13 JST
Adult eels (Provided by the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency)
Popular grilled eel dishes may become much cheaper and readily available due to a recent breakthrough in aquaculture techniques.
The Fisheries Agency announced July 4 it has made significant progress in the technology to hatch eel eggs, with annual production of 40,000 to 50,000 juvenile eels now possible.
Japan’s annual eel consumption is estimated at around 100 million, and agency officials said they are just one step away from artificial hatching on a commercial scale.
Their goal is for all juvenile eels supplied to eel farmers to be artificially bred by 2050.
The recent breakthrough has significantly driven down production costs. Hatching and raising a juvenile eel ready for aquaculture now costs around 1,800 yen ($11), a dramatic decrease from 40,000 yen in fiscal 2016.
However, this is still three times the price of a wild-caught juvenile eel, which comes to around 500 to 600 yen per fish.
The agency expects to further reduce costs to below 1,000 yen by introducing automatic feeders and other equipment.
Even though most Japanese eels are farm-raised, the process begins with catching wild juveniles, called elvers. Hatching them from eggs has historically posed significant technical challenges.
In addition, the number of wild juvenile eels caught in Japan has been declining, with over half of the supply relying on imports, mainly from Hong Kong, most of the time in recent years.
In response, the agency has been working since the 1990s to hatch and raise eels from eggs, achieving the world's first success in this endeavor in 2002.
For all their popularity, little is known about the habits and biology of eels, particularly during their early life stages.
Eels consumed in Japan are thought to originate from eggs that hatch in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, some 2,000 kilometers away.
Drifting on the Kuroshio Current for roughly 170 days, they reach Japan and nearby waters, where they are captured for aquaculture.
Despite the long journey in the Pacific, juvenile eels are still only around 6 centimeters long and weigh a mere 0.2 gram when they are caught.
Kindai University succeeds in complete farming of Japanese eels
November 20, 2023
Nissin draws on instant noodle wizardry for eel substitute
August 22, 2023
Method lets more females enter the male-dominated farmed eel world
January 20, 2021
Endangered Japanese eels thriving in river in central Osaka
January 30, 2023
Data center in Hokkaido uses server-cooling snow to raise eels
April 2, 2022
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
