Compilation of Japanese fisheries statistics for the Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica, since 1894: a historical dataset for stock assessment

Abstract

Fishery sustainability and the extinction risk of the Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica, are of global concern. The landings of the Japanese eel in Japan comprise a large part of the landings in East Asia. This study provides a compiled dataset of the annual fisheries statistics of the Japanese eel in Japan for stock assessment. The Japanese government has been recording Japanese eel statistics annually since 1984 in five series of annual reports by conducting systematic questionnaire surveys of fisheries managers and associations; however, most of these data are stored in analog format. The key variables in the dataset include the harvest weight of eels, the harvest weight and number of seeds for aquaculture, the number of eels stocked, and the number of management entities engaged in the eel fishery. The levels of spatial aggregation of the variables include the site (river and lake), prefecture, inland and coastal waters, and total in Japan. We also incorporated location data (latitude and longitude) of the site and prefecture into the dataset. Eel harvest includes primarily yellow eels (late juvenile stage) and silver eels (mature stage). Seed harvest in inland waters includes glass eels (intermediate stage between leptocephalus and elver) and elvers (early juvenile stage). Seed harvest from coastal waters comprises glass eels. This dataset provides information to assess long-term trends in the Japanese eel population.

Regional differences in oceanic migratory behavior of Japanese silver eel in waters with different vertical temperature gradients

“…Author details 1 Institute of Freshwater Biology, Nagano University, 1088 Komaki, 386-0031 Nagano, Japan. 2 Fisheries Resources Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 2-12-4 Fukuura, 236-8948, Yokohama, Japan.…”

“…Author details 1 Institute of Freshwater Biology, Nagano University, 1088 Komaki, 386-0031 Nagano, Japan. 2 Fisheries Resources Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 2-12-4 Fukuura, 236-8948, Yokohama, Japan. 3 Laboratory of Fisheries Biology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, 819-0395, Fukuoka, Japan.…”

Regional differences in oceanic migratory behavior of Japanese silver eel in waters with different vertical temperature gradients

“…The Japanese eel Anguilla japonica is a catadromous species native to the temperate zone of East Asia and is an important target of commercial fisheries. However, the abundance of the Japanese eel, associated with a decline in glass eel recruitment, has declined severely throughout its range in recent decades [1][2][3], similar to other temperate Northern Hemisphere eel species, including the European eel A. anguilla and the American eel A. rostrata [4]. The Japanese eel is widely distributed in freshwater and coastal areas of East Asia, including the Japanese coast, the Korean peninsula, mainland China, and the Philippines [5], and has a single spawning ground in the waters to the west of the Mariana Ridge [6][7][8] (Fig.…”