Assistant Professor Kazuki Matsushige of the Faculty of Environmental Science at Nagasaki University and Curator Yusuke Hibino of the Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History conducted a study on the conservation of freshwater eels of the genus Anguilla, a group of species currently experiencing a significant population decline.

Recognizing that effective conservation efforts require the public support necessary to drive to enhancement of policy measures by national and local governments such policies, they analyzed newspaper coverage and examined public awareness.

Their findings revealed that a particularly effective way to garner public support for eel conservation is to deliberately preserve the cultural and culinary value of eels as food, while also promoting accurate understanding of their population decline.

Highlights

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• In promoting eel conservation, opportunities to engage with eels not only as living creatures but also as food can serve as important motivators for public involvement.

• In Japan, eels are traditionally consumed during the summer and hold significant cultural and culinary value. Public perception of eels is therefore deeply tied to long-standing dietary practices. In particular, the period around the Doyo Ushi no Hi, when public interest in eel population trends tends to rise, presents a valuable opportunity for conservation outreach activities.

• The continued low stock levels of eels in recent years have led to a fading memory of previously abundant conditions, resulting in an underestimation of the long-term population decline.

• The decreasing opportunities to engage with eels as living creatures may further contribute to the underestimation of their population decline in the future.

Research Abstract

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Japan has one of the highest consumption rates of freshwater eels, some of which are threatened by multiple factors, including anthropogenic activities. The level of public support for eel conservation should be affected by the Japanese public’s perception of eels, but little is known about this. Here, we conducted a content analysis of newspaper coverage in recent years to examine aspects of eels that potentially motivate people to conserve them and people’s perception of the eel population status. Our results suggest that Japanese people can be motivated to conserve eels for consumption, but some people appear to underestimate the population crisis because of shifting baseline syndrome; that is, people have become accustomed to a deteriorated population status. Of note, as interest in the eel catch, supply, and abundance trends may increase around specific days, such as Doyo Ushi no Hi, on which most Japanese people conventionally consume eel dishes, educational activities on these days would be effective at reinforcing public support. It was found that experience with eels in nature appeared to decrease more drastically than experience with eel dishes, and this has been suggested as one of the factors encouraging the progress of shifting baseline syndrome. These results have implications for determining appropriate approaches to encourage Japanese society to conserve wild eel populations. Future studies are needed to verify our results and their implications using more robust methods and to examine the transition pattern of the Japanese public’s perception of eels and the relevant factors affecting this perception.

Keywords: Anguillid eel, Conservation, Endangered species, Fishery management, Sustainable consumption

Journal Information

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Journal: Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems

Title: Exploring Recent Japanese Public Perception of Freshwater Eels of the Genus Anguilla Using Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage

Authors:

Kazuki Matsushige

Faculty of Environmental Science, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

Yusuke Hibino

Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History, Fukuoka, Japan

Corresponding Author: Kazuki Matsushige

Publication Date: June 30, 2025

DOI: 10.1002/aqc.70164

For more details, please see the full article in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.