How an Eel Farm Grows and Smokes Eels for Top Sushi Restaurants - Dan Does
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- Опубликовано: 26 ноя 2024
- American Unagi is the country’s only glass eel farm. See how the process and facilities work, and learn about how founder and CEO Sara Rademaker grows her product to be sold live to restaurants and chefs. Here's where you can order some of their products: www.americanun...
Check out americanunagi.com for more info!
Credits:
Host/Producer: Daniel Geneen
Director: Connor Reid
Camera: Connor Reid, Will Caswell
Editor: Daniel Geneen
Executive Producer: Stephen Pelletteri
Development Producer: McGraw Wolfman
Coordinating Producer: Stefania Orrù
Audience Engagement: Daniel Geneen, Terri Ciccone
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For more episodes of 'Dan Does,' click here: trib.al/USAWNUy
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Хобби
Thanks for watching! Follow Sara and her eels here: instagram.com/americanunagi and if you want to hire dan as a butcher let him know at instagram.com/danielgeneen
We All Love 💕Eel Delicious 😋 Sushi 🍣
Where is the website to order some? How is that not in the video description? There should be a link for American Unagi right up top.
The glass eel fishery in Canada is licensed and enforced by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). Currently there are 9 licenses (each employing several fishers) to harvest glass eels in tidal river estuaries in the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
Elver recruitment survey of the East River-Chester,Nova Scotia, directed by DFO - it is the longest glass eel recruitment study in North America)
You probably should have mentioned the fact that we're overharvesting these eels to the point where they'll inevitably be listed as endangered. Right now, we should be harvesting fewer of them, not more, until populations are again healthy.
@@sparkeyjones6261
???
Man o' man, this is a eal farm.
For those who are curious about why they aren't breeding them, it's because nobody knows how eels actually breed and nobody has been able to reproduce them. Baby eels are often found in the middle of the ocean but nobody has ever seen a baby eel on the way to the ocean or has seen adults close to the middle.
Is collecting them this way sustainable though?
@@AdaptiveReasoning they can release a few of the adults on the ocean, since from thousands of Babies just a few would reach maturity
nobody has seen eels breed? Woah
are all eels brackish ? damn. I had no idea eel farming/eel anatomy was this complex.
@@ZzdeathangelzZ this is the case for the vast majority of marine creatures. the ocean is kind of inscrutable
She's admirable figuring out how to farm them and the guy who learned to filet like a champ on his own is also a badass.
Such an inspiration.
"I put my life savings into this shit, so if I don't figure this out quick I'm going to be poor" will bring out depths of character, competence, and ingenuity that you never knew you had.
As a piece of advice to anyone reading through the comments, figure up the worst case scenario for how much money you'll need to start your business and then save up 50% more. You'll save yourself so much stress.
I remember watching the Tuna King videos from this channel, he said at the end *"If you love it, you'll teach yourself. If you don't others teach you"*
20000 eels in
Eels are tasty if u ask me better than fish
She saw her chance and took it. Very impressive.
Japanese: It takes 5 years to master cutting eel
Charlie: I did it during the lockdown
Well to be fair, the skill to cut a live eel has more to do with dealing with the blood. Here the eels were already drained before cutting, so it's less skill-intensive.
And I'm all for it if it doesn't affect the taste that much if at all. That's how we get good quality stuff with lower cost and better streamlined procedure. That's progression.
The preparation they did in this video for the eel and cutting it isn't the same as Japanese level. The eels are fresh and alive in Japan. You smack a nail onto the eel's head and then start slicing it.
Considering we don't have sea food markets and its limited access are only to certain areas in parts of Canada... this is an easier way to manage stock. As much as the eels are fresh... they aren't exactly 100% fresh considering they go in the freezer for transportation.
Also the fact that they are smoking eel instead of having it roast over a charcoal fire combined with a good marinade/sauce does not bring out the eels full potential. Try it the Japanese way on a bed of rice. It's fucking delicious.
Japanese are over exaggerated, all you need to do is cutting 20,000 of it.
@@MrCleks plus that the japanese has a tendency to overcomplicate some things because of traditions. Look up sushi chefs filetting a salmon, takes around 1-2min.. Take a look at someone that works with industrial fish processing.. takes like 15 seconds with a cleaner result.
Dude and in Japanese culture some said that if you want to perfect dish for eel you will need a lifetime to perfect it
I'm Dutch living in the US and this is the one fish I miss the most. Very happy to see there are people here that understand how ridiculously good this fish is to eat!
I'm from the UK and when I was a child 40 years ago they used to catch glass eels in our local river and sold for next to nothing. My dad used to bring bucket loads home, they tasted lovely. We called them Elvers.
(That's what baby eels are called)
We do too.
OMG, the butcher is so talented to be able to self taught himself a technique that many people takes years to just get used to gutting eels.
Helps that he has a degree from a culinary institute.. not just some random guy that tried his hand at dealing with food
@@jamesbizs Nope. Dan has culinary degree not the butcher who is self taught
@@hdjghasgaj eh i think you’re stretching that
@@jamesbizs Having culinary training or being in a culinary school doesnt usually train you in cooking much at all.
Grilled eel in teriyaki sauce hit the spot
Its actually really inspiring to see someone start a business like this.
No it is not inspiring its coming From a hard worker for many years decades of hard work to still be a no body & when someone like this comes out of nowhere makes a business & is profitable good at it. I don't agree with it.
So passionate about her work. Much respect
My shipment arrived yesterday. The smoked and the fillets. Smoked was very tasty. The fillets I fried and they were 🔥. Will be buying more.😀
At those prices.... try catfish.
You fried the eel?
I'd BBQ them!!
As an eel lover, I deeply hope the products of this company can be found in our local supermarkets (Houston, TX).
Me either, even I live in South Korea
@@Amnok 0
Totally badass operation. American ingenuity and hard work at its finest. Hats off to these entrepreneurs!
That’s why I’m slightly hesitant when politicians tell me humanity is doomed in decades. Human ingenuity is so strong and amazing that I’m sure we can get past anything
@@Soshi12005 this is just one thing that’s solved quite easily due to the fact that you can farm it.
Things like Tuna on the other hand can’t be farmned and many other endangered seafood.
@@greatninja2590 to my knowledge, southern bluefish tuna only breed when they migrate thousands of miles sp breeders are using special centres that mimic the temperature, daylight, moonlight and water currents of a tuna migration. There are farms that are breeding tuna at this moment, I think Australia and Europe, but it is no where near 100% sustainable. But at least we are getting there
Endangered seafood is more about laws not being able to protect fishing seasons and overfishing. Not much a private entrepreneur can do when half your competition doesn’t respect the rules or don’t have rules that protect endangered species such as shark finning in Singapore and Taiwan.
@@Soshi12005 like I said if it can’t be famned then it can’t really be solved human greed will just kill them but I guess some people consider that as human ingenuity too. I mean they are being clever in avoiding the law and making sure their competitor doesn’t get a head
Sad that not many americans will eat eels. These are top notch clean fish meat. I can eat these for months 😊
props to all the farmers and processors out there, you are the heroes during covid too
I love that he actually tried to fillet a fish. Great job!
This lady needs to hook up with the top wholesale Japanese food suppliers in the US. Most Sushi style Eel / Unagi comes from China.
@@ericcartman106 Do you think people like to eat toxic Chinese mystery meat? They would pay for the quality. Not related to this, have a look chinese milk powder scandal.
@@rahusphere actually, by and large the Chinese export industry is top-notch, especially in terms of food quality (there are always exceptions, of course). In multiple industries across several countries, Chinese manufacturing/processing/QC standards are the new bar. The infant milk powder scandal, rice scandal etc were mostly for local consumption which is where the dodgy producers do their fleecing
@@eugenelim1436 Yeah I'll take your word for it, Mr. LIM.
@@eugenelim1436 True that.
@@robertwhitten265 lol what's that supposed to mean? Is that a discriminating assumption based on my last name?
I just like to say it..
*UNAGI!*
DANGER!!!!
SALMON SKIN ROLL
Unalgas
The state of total awareness.
Natural: 20-30 years
American: 7 months.
Me: Don complaint abt jacked up eel in 15years on netflix
They don’t use steroids
yes AMERICAN FARM RAISED we all know what poison is this BS
This eel will very likely be driven to extinction by our overfishing of them before then.
@@jaredf6205 as of now, it’s a fairly sustainable harvest in the US. This is why the states that have the harvest need to self regulate now instead of later when the feds have to step in because they screwed up the pop due to unwillingness to regulate. We can have sustainable farms and wild harvests of all kinds of animals if people would regulate properly
The US is the new China. Quantity over quality
First time watching Dan, he's a great host. Down to Earth, funny and respectful
I really like how white the lighting in this video is. It feels refreshing.
that's cool man! i'm a small scale catfish grower here in Philippines. I was fascinated by the technology they been using in thay eel farm. Love it!
My mouth cant stop watering watching them eat the smoked eel...
Fascinating. I used to catch these eels on a rod or by trap when I was a kid on Cape Cod. Nobody ate them. They were trash or bait used to catch striped bass. While still a kid I caught a huge one off a dock. Someone had it fried up and from then on I was hooked. Love smoked eel.
I worked at a seafood coop in Chatham. In Fall we would ship eels to New York where people would buy them to smoke. At that time I believe it was mostly a Jewish market for smoked eel.
When i saw the eels feeding I just wanted to put my hand in one of those tanks
I thought the exact oposite. No way in hell i'd put my hand in there 😂
@@lukthere2 HAHAH seems slimy tho. Thats why 😭 but i wondered if they were electric ones but i guess they aint
@@Caca990SSR You need to work on using your brain more often, they literally say they're Glass eels multiple times before the tank portion of the video..
Well they have hundreds of tiny insanely sharp teeth so good luck xD
Like looking at a hot stove, and having the sudden urge to put your hand on it.
The big glass eel or elver boom in Maine happened several years ago after storms decimated Asian eel farms. Prices skyrocketed to nearly $3000 a pound. That first year there were fisherman that built/bought houses from their catch. As the years have gone on, the price has slowly dropped, believe this past year the price was roughly $1200 a pound. Fisherman use 2 methods, using a dip net up and down the rivers, or setting up their fyke nets and leaving it. In that first couple years, fisherman had to stand guard of their fyke nets, people were going around stealing their catch.
These are all wild caught, so I’m really curious about the impact on the wild eel stocks.
Most eels all over the world are wild caught
@@lunix3259 I always thought unagi were farmed in China, that's why they got melamine and heavy metal and sh
@@lunix3259 True. But these are all taken before they've had a chance to spawn. This technique is being shown here as being sustainable, but here in Europe we are well aware that you are just depleting wild stocks.
@@Alexander711 Exactly. This is not sustainable. They only found a natural resource that has not been depleted. As the demand grows more will be harvested. I would be more impressed if they bred the eels.
@@geronimovision2912 In Holland the yearly total of glass eel is 2% of what it was in de 60's. This is just depleting the species and they are marketing it as a nice, sustainable way of fishing. Cant get my head around it.
It is so amazing how nature works. Eels and salmons have totally opposite life cycles, adult eels go out from the river to the ocean to reproduce and as baby glass eels return to the river
"Our eels are happy"
Yeah sure, I can really tell how happy they look xD
🙃
To have enough food to grow faster than normal would make any animals happy and content.
Perfect definition of sustainability. Utilizing lower resources to grow and meet current demand for protein which helps future generations of humans have resources for their needs.
This isn’t sustainable at all, American eel populations are collapsing
Absolutely Fantastic...I Love Smoked Eel! One of my favorites since I was a kid...many, many years ago! 😅
Great operation...I love seeing people carve out a living...hopefully they are managing how many eels are being taken though! Well done!
Mike 🇨🇦
The real reason why 1.4 lbs of feed result in 1 lb of eel ist not the eels inherent efficiency. It is simply because the processed fish feed is to a large extend dehydrated. If you were to rehydrate it to the same degree as the eels natural water content the ratio between feed and eel would be closer to a 1:10 ratio.
Hmm. Well, livestock feed is probably dehydrated as well.
chickens and turkeys too it's a distinction without a difference. It's dry food.
Very cool how he learned to fillet an eel the japanese way himself! Props to him!
Thanks to youtube buddy. 😂
True haha
Charlie's work ethic is phenomenal! 💪🏼👍🏻
I was engrossed in this but it slowly dawned on me the interviewer wouldn't be cleaning any tanks, or scooping out eel poop. I miss dirty jobs
What stuck me was how everyone in this vid was so nice and likeable.
Wow, that was awesome. Never had eel. Keep hearing how good it is. And for that price, might have to start growing that for sure. Place looked really cool and had a ton of eels. Cooked eel looked great too. Hope she gets are plant and makes it work. Was fun to watch. Great video
FANTASTIC!!!!
I also have an eel farm in Indonesia, and wow when i know the price of glass eel in America, that is expensive enough than when i bought it in Java Indonesia
Sara Rademaker saw a niche that needed filling, and took the initiative... very impressive!
Subscribed!
And now I'm going to her website, and order some yummy smoked glass eel.
Capitalism at work!
@@sisk22 Exactly!
I received my smoked eel shipment two days ago... delicious!
@@KarenDian1 glad to hear that!
I was recently shopping around wanting to buy some Eel which I assume is why these are being recommended to me now. Such an expensive product I cannot yet, one place wanted like $90 to ship me 2 lbs.
brilliant work
Yum! I haven't had sushi since covid started. Smoked eel is better than smoked salmon imo!
Yes! It definitely is!
Pssshhh. As an Alaskan I disagree.. salmon over slime eels.
I love the lingo they use) "Calm them down" - put them to near comatose state, "being bled after quickly dispatched"
aww everybody is so nice it makes me wanna eat eels just to support them
I hope this is the beginning of making unagi more accessible and cheaper across the US. It's hands down my favorite thing to have with eel sauce and rice but it's so hard to find actual good unagi where I live that isn't a long drive away.
I"m so glad to see you all wearing masks to keep the eels safe!
Lol
So you're picking up baby eels from the wild, that's not a closed loop system. Are you introducing the adult eels back into the wild for breeding?
From what I understand in the video, it's not them that catch the baby eels, and the fishermen who do catch them supply the eels to grow elsewhere as well, just that they're the only ones to do so in the US.
I can only assume this operation (prior to this particular eel farm) has been going on for a while with not much issue. They probably wouldn't be able to catch all the baby eels anyway & a lot of them will still find their way to the ocean.
That was my thought & concern as well. I just hope that harvesting the baby eels doesn’t have a negative impact on the wild population.
Unfortunately eel stocks are already severely depleted, so eel "farming" isn't actually close to sustainable at all. I think the catch has depleted by about 90% over the last couple of decades?
In my country New Zealand 🇳🇿 we have similar eels that’s grow well over 3 metres long and can weigh upto 35-40kg I’ve heard of one over 3.5 metres long that was over 75kg which is insane they are all through our rivers they do wonders for the ecosystem
We also hand raise them or if you feed an eel more than 3 times it will basically become your pet they can come onto land if it’s grass and roll over so you stroke under there chins or on there stomachs they love it hahaha
@@RBNZ-lg9cy ayo what?
Everyone seems so down to earth in this process!
I have 4
Thanks for the great video 📹 just making people happy 😊 😀 🙂 😄 ☺ 😁 😊
Incredibly smart of her!
Anyone who finds this interesting should try to find the show Trails To Tsukiji. Both an Anago episode and Unagi episode. Very informative on Japaness techniques for growing eel. The Anago episode appears to be on RUclips and is dubbed in English.
Yeah! NHK world has a lot good docs and show especially Japanolgy plus it's that good.
What a great interviewer!
I love how she promote his eel, make them happy😁😊
It's funny how things change. When I was a kid growing up in Hong Kong, we were poor and ate a lot of eel because fish was the cheapest meat and eels were the cheapest fish. Us kids would hang out at the fish market because some eels would escape and we would catch it off the streets by the gutter of the fish market to take home and eat. Now it's a delicacy.
@@DocPetron we can't afford to buy,it's very expensive than the normal fish in our place
We need more small businesses like this in small economic states.
GREAT EPISODE!! Learned a lot!
Hmmm, i was talking about eel soup yesterday for the first time in like 10 yrs and as soon as i open my eyes this morning, tadaaa...this video
The woman who grows eels is a master! She grew mine everytime I saw her walk away!
You’re a gross person
Watching Charlie operate is art.
When the farming do respect the product and the final result !, Great
Almost makes me want a pet eel. They look so cool
What a cool place to work. I'd pack up and leave texas just to work at a place like that. Love seafood sustainability
You saw the snow, right?
@@annee.carder6490 Yes and? Is the snow supposed to be a deterrent or something?
This isn't sustainable. The eel population in the US is demolished. They may be buying their eels legally, but it's hard to say. They could be just as easily buying black market eels contributing to their eventual extinction. I'm honestly a bit shocked they mentioned none of this.
@@matthewpearson2150 This is one of the few sources of eel avalable In America I have come across. Almost 100% of all eel I have ever had handled have been bulk bought from china or japan. I'm well aware the initial stock could have been purchased in this manner however as it's not an uncommon practice. Most seafood you consume only includes only data on which country caught or processed the fish. Most dont list the catch practices, method of harvest, feed type, if they are farmed open ocean or in tank based systems, water quality, antibiotics, hormones, if the dye used in feed is natural or artificialor remotely list the care given to the fish and the practices of the fishery itself and it's own enviromental impact and concerns from things like runoff, protection from mixing with wild stocks, protection from predators, if penbased systems use anti fueling agents on netting or go for a natural wax coating ect. I don't buy any wild fish without MSC certifications or at least a strong green rating for sustainability for my area for local catch. I'm an MSC and sustanable focused fishmonger and I look for quality sustanable farmed fish and anything that reduces the overall draw on my favorite fish is a win. I only hope this company can continue to improve and take even more steps to become a more green based and responsible fishery and strive to increase standards for both the production of their eel and quality of their product. I have a soft spot for Eels and I want the future to have fish to enjoy. Responsibly raised farmed eels is something I can get behind. Their natural habitat is prty much deleted. While I currently do not sell eel it's something I hope 2 one day. I used to sell a farmed fish that was a threatened species The farm they came from with help of their goverment would release young fish back to the waterways. Since this company started to practice responsible fishery managment and take in consideration enviromental practices that species has been making a comeback and finding it's way to my grill from the farm. Beautifull whitefish with firm flesh amazing for grilling and tacos. I love fish, and responsibly raised and farmed seafood is the future we need to feed this planet's massively growing population. I just want to do my part by educating and helping us get there.
Love to watch your videos!
Coolest series
Eel is hands-down one of my top faves food!
I appreciate it but it doesn’t solve the crisis of over eel catching that is making its way toward the steady end of extinction. I love unagi but we need to figure out step 1 because overconsumption is huge with glass eels, and it will make its way towards blue fin tuna territory where recovery is impossible
Yep. Unagi is one of my favorites but I decided ten years ago I wouldn’t eat it anymore until they commercialize growing eels from eggs. Labs in Japan have successfully bred and hatched eel eggs but are have it trouble scaling up the operation to make it commercially viable. They are always a few years away. Hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to grab a delicious Una-jyu made with farm bred unagi.
Yes, I'd like to recommend a book that really showcased the eel as truly a special species, Patrik Svensson's "The Gospel of the Eels: A Father, a Son and the World's Most Enigmatic Fish" -
"The European eel, Anguilla anguilla, is one of the strangest creatures nature ever created. Remarkably little is known about the eel, even today. What we do know is that it’s born as a tiny willow-leaf shaped larva in the Sargasso Sea, travels on the ocean currents toward the coasts of Europe, even into the Baltic and the Swedish rivers - a journey of about four thousand miles that takes at least two years. Upon arrival, it transforms itself into a glass eel and then into a yellow eel before it wanders up into fresh water. It lives a solitary life, hiding from both light and science, for ten, twenty, fifty years, before migrating back to the sea in the autumn, morphing into a silver eel and swimming all the way back to the Sargasso Sea, where it breeds and dies.
And yet . . . There is still so much we don’t know about eels. No human has ever seen eels reproduce; no one can give a complete account of the eel’s metamorphoses or say why they are born and die in the Sargasso Sea; no human has even seen a mature eel in the Sargasso Sea. Ever. And now the eel is disappearing (under 5% left today compared to 1950 when measurements were started), and we don’t know exactly why."
“Our eels are happy”
Their all crammed in a big bucket😂
@2:03 Our boy took a wild swing at that question.
"Is it because they have less excrement?".
Oh Mannnnn......
Ya thats part of that ignorant belief that cow farts are evil lol
My mouth started literally watering at the end...NGL 🤤
Gross
@@olivernavarro6237 just the truth lol 🤤🤤
Great! Keep the wood work Bremen Maine!
Dang, this woman is a genius!
Awesome reporting. Real journalism. Telling the true story. Thanks for sharing
nothing beats the nature wild catch
Pretty rad. I love smoked eel. And eel rolls are the best sushi rolls. To see this process was pretty cool. Keep up the good work.
she looks like one of the top model contestants from cycle 8
Wow, food is expensive and full of nutrients, but how to make the eel remains sustainable in nature
What an amazing success story!!
“Our eels are happy”
When someone makes a job look easy, you know that a) they are a maser craftsman and b) the task is really hard to do :)
How do they sustain the wild population of eels when they are catching wild babies for farming, and not able to breed eels in captivity?
If wild fish are low, hatcheries will raise fish to maturity and release them.
Because they are taking the young eels, most of which will not reach maturity in the wild. In captivity they are all well fed and kept from pradators. This drasticly increases survival rate. As long as fisherman are careful and don't take to many young eels then the amount taken to farm won't greatly impact the wild populations.
Awesome video! This channel has some of the best cooking shows, restaurants and chefs presented to the audience! Bravo!
All skilled labor: "We can, so we do.."
Dan: " Those that can't, make videos"
beautiful collision of two worlds
Excellent video. It’s such a great thing she’s doing.
"Send them to Charlie" sounds so menacing but them when you see him it's actually pretty sweet what he manages to do
So eels get taken out of the system at every stage so what happens when theres no hatchlings to recruit??
Cool video I enjoyed that, everyone at the eel laboratory and the eel slayer dude seemed cool.
That looks good 🤤🤤🤤
I like this show...it’s a good example of how the earth is here for us to use.
So natural.
Bill Hader did a wonderful job hosting this video.
I don’t believe people completely understand all that went into developing that aqua farming company! Kudos
So happy to have an American supplier!!!!!!! I love eel
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 The factory and the whole process looks so clean.
How is this eel farming? They caught the baby eels from the wild (and eels are critically endangered already) I mean its almost close to impossible to breed eels in captivity as well 🤷
American eels arent critically endangered
@@sneersh9107 give it a couple of years, I mean its already endangered. Critically endangered is only 1 step away!
They should return some of the adult eels back to ocean, otherwise we will running out of glass eel very soon...
Good job gang! What an awesome venture! Good luck and Aloha for plunging into this market! Keep it up!
Eel sushi is my absolute favorite. I would take an unagi roll over tuna roll anyday.
Used to love eating eels, then I watched "A Cure for Wellness"
That smoked eel is making my mouth water! 😋