Technical innovation in eel culture systems

Abstract

Anguillid eels are high-value aquaculture species. Eel aquaculture techniques were developed in Japan and subsequently transferred to Taiwan and South Korea. When glass eel and elver supplies became a constraint in Japan, Taiwan used this opportunity to establish its own eel aquaculture industry. Later on, China and Malaysia also started to develop eel aquaculture. In Europe, many countries also adopted the Japanese eel aquaculture techniques, although Italy and France already had a long history of very extensive eel aquaculture. Driving forces for the development of eel culture techniques have been the need to overcome temperature limitations, enhance productivity, and comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations while reducing production costs. Culture techniques have evolved from primitive methods to the highly sophisticated intensive systems. In this article, the current major growout culture systems are grouped into three categories: the outdoor culture system, the greenhouse culture system, and the intensive recirculating culture system. Innovations in Taiwan that apply Danish intensive recirculating culture technology are described separately. The eel aquaculture industry is facing constraints, such as unstable glass eel and elver supplies, lack of knowledge on larval rearing, disease occurrences, inconsistent product quality, limited markets, and a lack of culture techniques for other eel species. The challenge is to overcome these constraints in a sustainable manner with the technical, environmental, and economic considerations.