Eel is the most important freshwater fish culturing in Korea. Eel culture in Korea began approximately 25 years ago (1968). In the beginning, the main purpose of eel culture was to produce seed fish or fingering size from elvers collected in rivers. These were exported to Japan and Taiwan for further rearing. The main cultured species is Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica. The exact position of the spawning area of this species is still unknown, though it has been established it lies somewhere south of Taiwan. With development of industry, the domestic demand for edible eels has grown significantly, the eel culture has grown in Korea not only for seeds but also the marketable size product. From that time, eel culture expanded considerably in Korea. The eel production of Korea was about 5,000 tons in 2005. The success of eel culture is depended on the natural resources of elvers. The demand of elvers is increasing among three east asian countries, Korea, Japan and China and it makes the value of elvers very high. Some farmers use European elvers instead of the East Asian one. National Fisheries Research and Development Institute has started to study the production of elvers artificially in lab orforvies. In Korea most eel farms using a pond system have built greenhouse structures over the ponds not only to prevent winter death but also to increase the growth rate. Because of the adverse climatic condition in Korea, and the limited areas available for fish culture development, a number of trials on closed recirculating culture systems have been made in the country by fish farmers.

Green water culture system for Eel

Recirculating culture system for Eel


Feeding behavior of eel culturing in recirculating water system