Can This Farm Change the Way Americans Buy and Eat Eel?

Eels are delicious: Despite a slimy, snake-like appearance, their tender, rich meat is a favorite in everything from seaside fish fries to sushi to haute cuisine. But today’s eel lover faces a dilemma. The three major species of edible eels are all endangered, some critically so. Many eels appearing on menus are raised in China, where limited regulation means that eel farms can import the fish from illegal or sustainably fished populations, and then grow them using potentially harmful chemicals.

One of the challenges facing any wannabe eel farmer is that eels are notoriously elusive. The list of scientists who have tried and failed to get a grip on the life cycle and biology of the slippery fish is long — and includes Sigmund Freud, whose pioneering work on human sexuality was perhaps inspired by his failure to find eel testicles as a 19-year-old student., told Gastropod, eels are still “the most mysterious fish.

Until recently, all baby eels were trucked from Maine to NYC, and shipped out to Asia overnight. To Rademaker, that just didn’t make sense. “It is the most valuable fishery per pound, and the entirety of the fishery is getting shipped to China to be grown,” she says. “I was like, all right, well, we should just do this here! Why isn’t anybody doing this?” Like all good innovators, Rademaker started out in her basement, growing a few eels from babies to mature adults in tanks.

Rademaker’s eels made their way to market as whole fish, butterflied filets, delicious alder- and oak-smoked filets, and canned smoked eel from Gulf of Maine Conservas. Even with her expanded farm facilities, 95 percent of eel eaten in America will still be grown overseas, but Rademaker is hoping to expand. And, in the meantime, she’s working with scientists to help solve some of the eel’s many mysteries — and, in the process, to help save it.

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