Glass Eel Production Division

The seedlings for glass eel aquaculture are completely dependent on natural resources. However, in recent years, annual catches have fluctuated greatly, which causes price fluctuations and is a management problem for eel farmers. In addition, because of their greatly reduced abundance, they are listed on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as an Endangered Species (EN), which means that they are “at high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.” Therefore, it is critical to replace natural seedlings for eel aquaculture with artificially produced seedlings.
To provide a stable supply of artificial glass eels, the Glass Eel Production Division researches the breeding of broodstocks and artificial maturation control, high-quality larval feed that can be stably supplied, highly productive mass larval rearing systems, and rapid breeding of glass eels.

The Glass Eel Production Division consists of the Basic Technology Group and Production System Group.

Basic Technology Group

This group conducts research on technologies that provide a basis for efficient seedling production, such as techniques for broodstock breeding and artificial maturation control, as well as feed for eel larvae to achieve high growth. In addition, they are attempting to produce strains with a shortened larval period, because a long larval period is a major obstacle to stable Japanese eel seedling production.

Production System Group

This group conducts research on tanks that enable the mass breeding of eel larvae, automatic feeding devices, and rearing systems critical for the construction of a mass-production system for glass eel.