Asia’s Appetite for Sushi Is Putting Philippine Eels in Peril
Japan and China are targeting the Philippines as a new source for their beloved but rapidly disappearing eels, according to an investigation by the wildlife trade network TRAFFIC and the Zoological Society of London.
Eels are big business in China and Japan, where they are eaten as part of traditional Asian medicine or as the delicacies known as unagi and kabayaki. The voracious appetite for eel—30,000 tons are consumed every year in Japan alone—has already put multiple species at risk. Last year Japan declared the Japanese eel endangered, a move followed this spring by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. That follows the 2010 declaration of the European eel as critically endangered because of overharvesting for the Japanese market.
The Philippines recognized in 2012 that its five species of native eels were probably next. Trade in Philippine eels was almost nonexistent before 2007. Minor levels of trade took place for the next few years, followed by an explosion of both exports and prices in 2011 and 2012. After that, the country put in place a rule that said only juvenile eels larger than 15 centimeters could be exported. The TRAFFIC investigation, however, found that eels of all sizes are being caught and exported, and that the trade has continued to increase.
The escalating trade, especially in juvenile eels, could be “seriously detrimental to these species,” said Vicki Crook, program officer with TRAFFIC and the author of the report. Of particular concern is a species called the Philippine mottled eel, which was only scientifically described five years ago and has a limited range around Luzon Island—which is also the heart of the Philippine eel trade.
Fishers target eels in two early stages of their life cycle, when they are known as glass eels or elvers. At this point they are just a few centimeters long and mostly transparent. Eels at this stage are caught by the thousands and shipped to China, where they are grown in massive vats until they’re large enough to eat. Captive breeding of eels on a wide scale has never been successful.
TRAFFIC investigators did not reveal pricing data for illegal wildlife—they fear that information would only encourage further criminal activity—but the report cites wholesale food-supply websites advertising glass eels for sale at prices as high as $1,500 a kilogram. One kilogram can contain as many as 6,500 glass eels. Some companies in the Philippines claimed in these online marketplaces that they could ship orders of thousands of kilograms per month.
All of this trade—much of which is illegal—adds up. According to the report, the Philippines now accounts for 30 percent of all live eels imported to East Asia. Official export data examined by TRAFFIC and the Zoological Society of London revealed that 3.5 million pounds of eels were exported from the Philippines in 2012 and 2013. That figure does not include eels smuggled through customs.
In addition to eels from the Philippines, the country is apparently also a conduit for the illegal trade in European eels and other species.
The report lays out several recommendations for monitoring and safeguarding the future of the Philippine eels, including collecting data and improving law enforcement. The study was funded by a biodiversity grant from the U.K. government’s Darwin Initiative and conducted in association with the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Philippine Biodiversity Management Bureau.
Crook said the report’s recommendations are “aimed at all project partners and other stakeholders” and that they “will be working on implementing these together over the next two years, and hopefully beyond.”
Until then, you may want to lay off the unagi.
Related stories on TakePart:
• China Is Pushing the Rare Pig-Nosed Turtle to Extinction
• World's Cutest Anteater Increasingly Threatened by Poachers
• Asia's Demand for Apes Is Spurring a Deadly Illegal Trade
Original article from TakePart
