On October 26, Kindai University, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, announced that it has succeeded in complete farming the full cycle of Japanese eels, with the world’s first feat of its kind by a university. The Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency in 2010 became the world’s first body to achieve the feat, and Kindai University is apparently the first university to follow suit.
The university used similar methods to those of the state-run Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, which in 2010 became the first facility in the world to achieve full-cycle eel farming, a process that involves incubating and cultivating eels so they produce offspring.
In eel farming, natural young eels, called glass eels, are imported and grown into mature eels. Some 99% of adult eels are sourced from farms. However, the catch of glass eels has plunged to some one-tenth of that in the 1980s, creating the need for urgent efforts to conserve resources.
The university removed the eggs from a female eel for artificial insemination and then allowed the hatchlings to reach maturity before repeating the process to establish a full breeding cycle. The juvenile eels, known as glass eels, take time to mature and maintaining them can be complicated as their eating habits often make their tanks dirty, according to the university.
While Kindai University has achieved a “full-cycle” aquaculture of the eels and hopes are high about utilizing the method for commercial use, the goal has yet to be realised. The university said it has struggled to sustain a large population of young eels due to the many mysteries surrounding their biology.
Kindai University has so far developed farming technology for bluefin tuna and red sea bream. Shukei Masuma, head of the Aquaculture Research Institute, told a press conference in Tokyo,
“We will focus on developing the technology to raise glass eels and help in their mass production,”
According to the university, it collected fertilised eggs from farmed parent eels at an experimental site of its Aquaculture Research Institute in the town of Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, on July 5, and succeeded in hatching some the following day. Researchers also confirmed additional hatches on August 3 and 24. As of October 18, a total of some 600 eel larvae were growing.
In putting complete farming to practical use, the cost issue poses a challenge. According to the Fisheries Agency, it cost 3,026 yen (approx. USD20) to artificially breed one young fish as of fiscal 2020. While this is a sharp drop from the 27,750 yen (about USD185) it cost in fiscal 2016, natural young fish remain cheaper, at 180 to 600 yen each (approx. USD1.20 to USD4). This significant price difference makes it difficult for completely artificially bred fish to make it onto dinner tables.
The Fisheries Agency in 2021 laid out a goal of bringing about complete farming of Japanese eels and other major cultured fish by 2050, in a bid to achieve a sustainable farming system that would not burden natural resources.
(Sources: https://www.msn.com from Japanese original by Kouki Matsumoto, Lifestyle, Science & Environment News Department;https://english.kyodonews.net/kyodo_news
(Sources: https://www.msn.com from Japanese original by Kouki Matsumoto, Lifestyle, Science & Environment News Department;https://english.kyodonews.net/kyodo_news
