Unagi's delicious past has seemed to run its course. The Japanese, as we all know, adore unagi. However, the freshwater eel has been on the "red list" for a while now and is considered endangered. The reason for the massive decline of the eels is classic over-consumption. In just three generations, the freshwater eels were reduced to just 10 - 30% of their original population, Esquire reported.
The primary reason for the freshwater eel's rarity is the impossible task of spawning them in artificial environments. These amazing creatures actually have a very impressive process in propagating their kind and it all begins in the Sargasso Sea, a 2 million square mile region of warm water in the North Atlantic.
This is where they hatch. From there, the young eels allow themselves to be brought along by ocean currents until they reach freshwater rivers everywhere else. They can be found from Greenland all the way to South America. They have a lifespan of 25 years before returning to the Sargasso to lay eggs and eventually die, Tofugu reported.
The three main species of freshwater eel that aquaculture, and basically the whole of Japan, depends on are all in steep decline. As a matter of fact, it will most probably take decades to rebuild what was lost. A ton of restaurants in Japan have already closed down because of the unavailability of unagi. With Japan's appetite for the eel, they tear through 70% of the global supply like it is nothing.
The process of preparing unagi requires the eels to be alive. Not only are these eels difficult to handle, they also have a neurotoxin that only experts can properly prepare. The major problem, however, is that most are from North America and elsewhere. The solution was to catch a ton of the little baby eels, ship them in glass containers, and bred to maturity until they are served in that special unagi way.
