![]() ![]() The three major species on which the eel fishing and aquaculture industries depend are all in decline and may require decades to rebuild. The most pressing problem facing eel aquaculture remains the reliance on wild stocks that are in jeopardy. And two years before the Guardian story, a Seafood Watch report from 2007 warned of the problem and advised more sustainable methods to help rebuild three freshwater eel species' populations (bolding theirs). ![]() The Guardian reported in 2009 that European eel consumption has declined by 95 percent over the last 25 years. They live for as long as 25 years before returning to the Sargasso to lay their eggs and die. Then the young eels ride the ocean currents until they reach freshwater rivers anywhere from Greenland to South America. The eels hatch in the Sargasso Sea, a two-million-square-mile region of warm water in the North Atlantic. In 2004, The Associated Press reported on two brothers, Doug and Tim Watts, who were dedicated to saving the declining American eel population, and The New York Times ran another story in 2011, writing at length about the species' involved if not damned-impressive spawning process: Like most cases of over-consumption, this unfortunately comes as little surprise given that the Japanese tear through 70 percent of the world's catch and the difficulty in farm raising them. The government has officially added the nation's freshwater eel population to its "red list" of endangered species after finding a 70 to 90 percent rate of decline over the last three generations. ![]()
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