American Eel

Although not popular as a food fish in the United States, eels are considered a delicacy in European and Asian countries. Traditionally, fish are harvested from the wild at marketable size, but young eels have recently been captured and cultured to market size. Most eel species have little commercial interest in the United States. However the Census of Aquaculture (2005) reports that three eel farms, one each in Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, are in operation. Because most of the world considers eel a gourmet species, they could potentially be a high-value export and gourmet market product.

Distribution and Life Cycle
The Atlantic distribution of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) includes the entire eastern seaboard of the United States, southeastern Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. Eel can be found as far inland as the Great Lakes.

Eels are an catadromous (the opposite of anadromous) species, meaning that they spend their juvenile life in fresh water and migrate to the ocean to spawn. Adult eels move from rivers into the ocean in the fall, traveling to the southwest part of the North Atlantic called the Sargasso Sea. After spawning, the adults die and the eel larvae travel on ocean currents back toward the mainland, feeding and growing along the way. The eel larvae undergo three stages ending with the elver stage. The elvers are migratory, reaching stream mouths in the spring and then traveling up rivers.

Commercial Catches
Current research suggests that commercial catches of the American eel and related species are rapidly declining across the species' North American range, indicating that it is in jeopardy. The bulk of current commercial eel catches in the United States is in central coastal states (80 percent), with less from northern (19 percent) and southern (1 percent) states.

Until recently, American and Canadian eel harvests were about equal. But the Canadian catch has fallen so much that U.S. landings—though declining—now account for 80 percent of the catch.

There is considerable concern about heavy exploitation of all life stages, coinciding with a continent-wide decline in commercial catch. The causes of these declines include the cumulative effects of intensive fishing of this slow-growing, late-maturing fish, but many scientists doubt that fishing pressure alone explains the decline of the eel. Habitat loss through dam construction may be another cause; hydroelectric dams in particular have hindered the migration of eels both upstream and downstream. Other possible causes are pressures from climate change; parasites, such as the blood-feeding worm; and pollution. Because of their long lifespan and high fat content, eels have a high potential to accumulate toxic contaminants.

In response, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service were asked to consider a petition to have the American eel listed as an endangered species (American Eel Anguilla rostrata). The provincial government of Ontario, Canada, responded by banning commercial eel fishing in Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River and ended the sport fishing of eels across Ontario.

Eel Farms
Eel production of larval fish for stocking programs or adult fish for meat products using aquaculture systems is a well-established industry in the United Kingdom, France, the Scandinavian countries, Morocco, Australia, China, Taiwan and Japan. Currently, the largest single market for farmed eels is the Japanese 'kabayaki' (marinated, grilled eel) market. The Japanese consume more than 99,770 tons of eels per year, but domestic Japanese production is only about 327,210 tons (2001 data). The kabayaki markets prefer eels weighing 0.44 pounds. Despite the high price paid for kabayaki eels, marketing of large eels up to 11 pounds each into alternative markets may be equally if not more economical. (Eel Aquaculture).