Japan facing extremely poor catches of baby eels

January 18, 2018

Tokyo- Catches of juvenile Japanese eels have been extremely low in the current finishing season, raising concerns among eel farmers.

Baby eel catches in December last year are believed to have totaled only 0.2 ton, down sharply from a year before, according to the Fisheries Agency.

If the situation continues, catches in the 2018 season, from last month to April, may slip below the record low of 5.2 tons in the 2013 season.

Baby eels, also known as glass eels or elvers, are caught in 24 of Japan's 47 prefectures, including Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Shizuoka.

In Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, baby eel catches in the first 15 days of the 2018 season from Dec. 10came to 0.5 kilogram, or just one pct of the year-before level.

Catches remain very low in January, an official of the prefecture's resource management division said.

The Japanese eel, or Anguilla japonica, which is at risk of extinction, spawn in waters west of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 2,000 kilometers from Japan.

Annual glass eel catches topped 200 tons in the 1960s. Recently, the volume has been around 15 tons.

According to the agency, most eel farmers raise the fish for more than one year. Retail eel prices are likely to surge in summer and later. Jiji Press