About 80 percent of young eels put into aquaculture pools in Japan in December and January may have been smuggled from Taiwan via Hong Kong, according to trade data and sources close to the matter.
Around 6 tons of juvenile eels were imported to Japan from Hong Kong in those two months, according to government data, but Hong Kong does not engage in eel fishing, raising suspicions about their origin. Industry observers say most may have been illegally brought from Taiwan, which bans eel exports.
The eels start their spawning migration in the waters of East Asia and are designated as a species at risk of extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to deteriorating habitat conditions and overfishing.