It is, in essence, the very opposite of salmon, which is born in freshwater and swims out to sea. ![]() The freshwater eel (or as you'd find it on a sushi menu: unagi) is the only fish that is spawned in the ocean and travels to live in freshwater. The elvers are eaten as a delicacy and also raised at eel farms. That's why importers are sourcing freshwater eel from where they can, China, Taiwan and here in the U.S., primarily from Maine and South Carolina. "Nobody has figured out how to breed eels in captivity, so they all have to be wild-caught," Bill Trotter of Bankgor Daily News told NPR just last month. It's just that the unagi situation is also now bleeding over into the States. It's said the Japanese consume 70 percent of the world's freshwater eel. The country added its freshwater Anguilla japonica as an endangered species in 2013 after seeing a 90 percent decline over three generations. In Japan, where freshwater eel, or unagi, is basically a way of life, the population has been on a severe decline, to the point of almost being wiped out, and things are getting pretty dire. There are poachers in Maine who've been stealing baby eels, known as elvers, the going rate for which happens to sit at around $1,500 per eel. So far, we've covered the continuing saga of the is-it-too-smart-to-eat octopus, the oyster and its massive gonad, and now we're on to the sad plight of the freshwater eel. ![]() This is for all you schadenfreude-obsessed killjoys out there. Welcome to Before You Eat That, which broaches all the annoying food subjects that make you highly uncomfortable.
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