Japan's appetite for fish is depleting stocks, threatening restaurants

[Liberal_in_LA]

Japan's appetite for fish is depleting stocks, threatening restaurants

Dramatically lower catches have led to an overwhelming dependency on expensive fish farms and imports, driving up costs.

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But the island nation's voracious appetite for eel and other fish has depleted the ocean's supplies and raised international outcries to halt Japan's overfishing.

"Each year is a fight for survival," Takayasu said.

Dramatically lower eel catches from local river habitats have led to an overwhelming dependency on expensive fish farms and imports, forcing restaurants like Takayasu's out of business.

Last year, for instance, eelers caught 267 tons from natural habitats, a drop of two-thirds from the amount caught a decade earlier, according to the Nihon Yoshoku Shinbun, a publication that tracks marine resources. Last year's catch was less than 1% of the nearly 35,000 tons consumed; farming provided nearly 11,000 tons, and imports from China and Taiwan accounted for the remainder, the publication said.

Industry experts have criticized the quality of imports as uneven and have noted that cultivating eels on about 300 fish farms nationwide is a high-risk, labor-intensive venture.

"The sad story of Japanese unagi is just one of the many examples of how Japan's voracious appetite for fish has created problems for itself," said Hiroyuki Matsuda, eel resource researcher at Yokohama National University.

http://www.latimes.com/business/fi-japan-fish-20100904,0,1561138.story