The hunters waded into the water after darkish, their headlamps beaming as they tossed nets into the crashing waves time and again.
All evening, they shook muck from the nets, finding out their prizes: wriggling, clear child eels, every no thicker than a vermicelli noodle. They had been price their weight in gold, or practically. The fishermen dropped them into jars of water, which a few of them hung round their necks on string.
“Generally it’s gold, typically it’s grime,” mentioned Dai Chia-sheng, who for a decade had spent his winters fishing for glass eels, because the child eels are referred to as. Introduced in by the ocean currents yearly, the eels had lured households like Mr. Dai’s to Taiwan’s coasts for generations.
“We used to see the trade as worthwhile, however now increasingly more individuals have doubts,” Mr. Dai mentioned.
All over the world, there are far fewer eels than there was. Conservationists say that essentially the most generally traded eel species are threatened. In Taiwan, as elsewhere, their numbers have dropped due to overfishing, the lack of their riverside habitats to growth and, extra not too long ago, local weather change, mentioned Han Yu-shan, a professor on the Institute of Fisheries Science at Nationwide Taiwan College.
Within the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s, Taiwan’s eel trade was thriving, fueled by Japan’s urge for food for unagi. There have been years when exports to Japan alone totaled $600 million. However these days are gone.
In 2022, Taiwan exported simply $58 million price of eels in whole. China, whose huge deepwater fleet has been accused of endangering fishing shares worldwide, way back eclipsed Taiwan as Japan’s fundamental supply of imported eels.
Professor Han mentioned that whereas international warming’s results on eels had not been carefully studied, fishermen in Taiwan suppose that adjustments in temperature have an effect on the tides that carry of their catch.
“The hotter the seawater is, the decrease the fish would swim,” which makes them tougher to catch, mentioned Kuo Chou-in, 68, president of the Taiwan Eel and Shrimp Exporters’ Affiliation.
Fishermen like Mr. Dai promote their eels to wholesalers alongside the Lanyang River in Yilan County, simply noticed by the indicators that learn “accepting eels.” Wholesalers pay as a lot as $40 per gram — gold is about $63 for a similar quantity — with about six eels to a gram.
From there, they go to aquaculture farms, the place they’re raised to maturity. (To guard its dwindling shares, Taiwan has banned the export of glass eels in the course of the winter fishing season, however many are smuggled out as a part of a worldwide, multibillion-dollar black market.)
Earlier than being flown to Japan and different nations, mature eels’ final cease in Taiwan is a packaging plant, the place they’re packed in baggage of water with thick slabs of ice. Ms. Kuo, the export affiliation president, owns a type of crops, within the northern metropolis of Taoyuan.
She is a uncommon lady in a male-dominated trade. On a winter night, she strode the ground of her plant in galoshes, speaking to shoppers on the cellphone and infrequently dipping her arms into vats, to catch the slithering eels and kind them into streams.
Ms. Kuo started her profession at 21 with a Japanese import-export firm that dealt in, amongst different issues, eels. She caught her first glimpse of them as an interpreter, throughout a web site go to at a packaging plant. She was fascinated by how the employees, utilizing solely their fingers, caught the eels and precisely judged their weight.
After 17 years on the firm, Ms. Kuo misplaced her job when Japan’s bubble financial system crashed. She went into enterprise for herself in 1992, depleting her financial savings and mortgaging two properties to purchase manufacturing unit gear. She mentioned she slept in her automotive for years.
Ultimately, the frugality and hustle led to a grander way of life. Ms. Kuo now drives a convertible and has been profiled in Taiwanese media (which dubbed her “the eel queen.”) She as soon as appeared on a Japanese tv present to prepare dinner samples of her product for a panel of judges.
“The Taiwanese eels received the competitors,” she recalled with a smile. “Our eels are the most effective.”
Glamour is tougher to seek out within the often-polluted estuaries the place glass eels are caught. The fishermen stand for hours, dipping basket-like nets out and in of the water, or they swim out after tying themselves to steel anchors on the seashore.
Chen Chih-chuan, a part-time technician, mentioned he virtually died as soon as whereas swimming for eels. “I misplaced the energy to drag the rope. I let go and let myself float within the sea,” he recalled throughout a break alongside the Lanyang River.
“Now I’m older and extra skilled,” mentioned Mr. Chen, who wore a inexperienced, rubbery full-body go well with and yellow boots. “I received’t push myself to that extent.” He leaped again into the waves.
Mr. Chen mentioned he had managed to make $8,000 this season — an quantity he was glad with, although down from earlier years.
The worth of eels plummeted in the course of the pandemic, as eating places closed and international transport was thrown into disarray.
Chang Shi-ming, 61, caught eels as a younger man close to town of Changhua on Taiwan’s western coast. Within the early Nineties, a sprawling petrochemical plant went up there. Smoke and steam rise from its many chimneys, blanketing the close by grass with white mud. He mentioned the harvest has by no means been the identical.
“We’ve seen a lot injury over the previous years,” Mr. Chang mentioned. “There are only a few eels this yr.” That, not less than, is what he hears; about 20 years in the past, Mr. Chang switched to cultivating clams, which is much less labor-intensive.
His eldest son works on the petrochemical plant. “It’s only a job,” Mr. Chang mentioned.
Chiang Kai-te, 43, a part-time building employee, had spent a few years working odd jobs when a good friend’s success satisfied him to attempt eel fishing. He moved from his hometown to a village by the Lanyang River. He noticed his 4-year-old son and his mother and father solely on weekends, after they visited.
The work had proved exhausting to grasp and the nightly catch tough to foretell, starting from 10 to 100 child eels. On a latest outing, he caught fewer than 20.
“It’s exhausting to money in,” mentioned Mr. Chiang, slumped on the bottom from exhaustion. “My entire household depends on me.” He mentioned he was on the verge of quitting.
“I don’t suppose it’s sustainable to maintain doing this,” he mentioned.
Close by, half a dozen retirees had been having a greater time, grilling rooster wings round a small pit. They had been members of the Amis tribe, considered one of Taiwan’s Indigenous ethnic teams.
Eel fishing was not an Amis custom, however the mates had been spending their winters in Yilan County for a decade, establishing camp in tents fitted with wood doorways. After fishing, they might crack open beers and speak cheerfully into the evening.
“We’re right here not only for eels, but in addition for spending time with mates,” mentioned Wuving Vayan, 58, who was utilizing a dirty flotation machine as a makeshift stool. “It’s one of many happiest moments throughout a yr.”
“We are able to’t management the adjustments of the local weather,” she added. “All we will do is pray for good climate and harvest.”
