Washington Convention Not to Regulate Japanese Eel

January 8, 2019

Tokyo--The Japanese eel, which is in danger of extinction, will not be included in the scope of the Washington Convention, which regulates international trade in endangered plants and animals, it was learned Tuesday.

The European Union and other signatories to the treaty stopped short of submitting a proposal for discussions on the restriction of trade in the eel at a meeting this year.

A meeting of members of the treaty, officially called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, is held about every three years. The next meeting will be held in Sri Lanka from late May to early June.

Although the EU had said that the Japanese eel should be put on the list of species for which commercial trade is restricted, no proposal regarding the eel was made by late December, the submission deadline, according to Japan's Fisheries Agency.

The European eel, which has dwindled in numbers due to overfishing, has already been added to the list of trade restrictions.

Outside the framework of the treaty, Japan is in talks with South Korea and Taiwan to regulate farming of glass eels, or juvenile Japanese eels. Jiji Press