Eating eel and getting through a hot summer: It's time to make every possible effort for the conservation of eel resources to protect Japan's food culture.
The prices of Japanese eel won't stop rising.
Wholesale market prices for Japanese eel have risen from a year earlier by as much as 30 percent, reaching a record high for the past decade. Never mind eating prized unajyu -- broiled eel on rice, served in a lacquered box -- at long-established eel restaurants, even packaged kabayaki -- broiled eel with a sweet sauce -- sold at supermarkets has hardly been within reach.
The biggest factor is poor catches of glass, or young eel to be used for farming. Due to overfishing of glass eel by Japan and China, hauls are as low as about 10 percent of their peak.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has designated Japanese eel as an endangered species. Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention, will meet in May next year.
If the recovery of Japanese eel resources is deemed to be difficult at the meeting, the export and import of Japanese eels could be restricted.
This would be a heavy blow to Japan, a country that depends greatly on imports of Japanese eel. Effective measures for its conservation need to be taken before effects on its production or consumption spread.
The problem is that China, a country that has now overtaken Japan to become the world's biggest consumer of eel, has been passive about the management of eel resources.
In China, the popularity of Japanese-style kabayaki is rising.
As poor catches of young eel have become conspicuous in line with the increase in their consumption, Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan have held meetings to discuss ways to manage resources of Japanese eel since 2012.
Convince China to join talks
This year the meeting was held in June, but China was absent for the fourth year in a row. If that country attempts to dodge new restrictions, it would be considered too irresponsible.
Japan should tenaciously approach China to participate in the talks.
The fact that the habitat of Japanese eel has barely been ascertained in the first place makes it extremely difficult to manage resources internationally.
It is urgent to ascertain the actual circumstances regarding the volume of the resources and their migratory routes, thus leading to the establishment of an appropriate catch quota.
During the talks in June, it was decided to hold a meeting of experts, possibly in September, to discuss concrete measures for conserving the resources.
Countries and regions concerned are urged to come together, each bringing its own research results, and hold in-depth discussions on specifics.
For Japan to strengthen its say, it is important to amend its own behavior. Poaching of young eels has been rampant in various areas. Local governments and police need to cooperate closely and strengthen their surveillance.
The ultimate method of solving the shortage of resources lies in capturing no wild young eel, and conducting complete farming instead, culturing them from the stage of eggs.
Research institutes of the Fisheries Agency and others are already conducting verification experiments, but the survival rate of young eels is low, and the cost is high.
It is necessary to steadily advance efforts toward commercializing such experiments.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 23, 2018)
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