Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan Agree to Make Eel Trade Transparent

April 20, 2019

Tokyo- Japan, South Korea and Taiwan agreed on Friday to make international trade in young eels, or glass eels, in an effort to recover the population of endangered Japanese eels.

At issue is a rampant flow of glass eels to Japan from Taiwan via Hong Kong intended to circumvent Taiwan's ban on exports to Japan.

In order to prevent such improper trade, Japan wants to lift the ban and normalize trade between Japan and Taiwan, a Japanese Fisheries Agency official said.

At their meeting in Tokyo, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan kept the limits for the volumes of glass eels released in farming ponds for the next fishing season unchanged.

The caps for the next season between November and April are 36 tons for China, 21.7 tons for Japan, 11.1 tons for South Korea and 10 tons for Taiwan.

Wild Japanese glass eels are caught at the mouths of rivers and farmed in ponds.

Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan, all major eel farmers, introduced such caps in November 2014 to protect glass eels from overfishing.

The caps were kept unchanged for the next season because China, which opposes stricter regulations, was absent from the conference for the fifth straight year.

China's absence made it difficult to discuss cutting the caps despite continuing poor catches of wild glass eels. Jiji Press