Irish baby eels are reeling in grown up prices

FAR from their birthplace on the Sargasso Sea, thousands of tiny sea serpents under cultivation in a Wicklow warehouse are expected to fetch some of the highest prices for Irish fish on the Continental market.

"One of the most exciting developments in Irish aquaculture," is how Irish farming pioneer, Dr Ivor Warrer Hansen, describes Aqua Arklow Ltd - the State's first eel farm, which was opened recently by the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore.

Elvers or baby eels reared in the company's re-circulation units are expected to make at least three times the price of salmon on export to Holland and Denmark.

Aqua Arklow is the brainchild of a persistent plumber and central heating engineer, Declan Dnggan. By contrast with salmon, which can gain up to five kilogram in two years, eels are among the slowest growing fish species and rely on continued supplies of warm water in captivity.

In an interesting example of technology transfer, Duggan applied his skills to installing a water recirculation system devised with the help of Dr Warren Hansen, who acted as consultant to Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) during the research and development stage of the project.

Optimum temperatures of about 23 to 25 degrees Celsius are maintained by pumping water round tanks and treating in a separate waste water treatment unit. The system is "very environmentally friendly", Dr Warrer Hansen says.

It is more profitable and less likely to cause local tensions than most other fish farming techniques. Such has been its success that he intends to set up the State's second eel farm in Co Wicklow very shortly.

Total investment in the project has been £702,000 to date, with just over half coming from the EU Operational programme for Fisheries and BIM, and the balance of £341,000 made up of BES investment and the promoter's own resources.

The company intends to help fill the gap left by falling European catches of wild eels by supplying 80 gram eels to Dutch farmers for on growing and 160 gram eels to Dutch and Danish processors.

Prices are even higher on the world's largest market, Japan. The Japanese believe that the meat restores vitality and energy during hot and humid summer months, and cook it in the form of "kaba-yaki" or broiled eel, with a special soya sauce.

To meet domestic demand, eel processing factories are being financed by Japanese fish merchants in China, and Tokyo is also looking to Europe for increased supply.

Eels in the wild can take from 12 to 18 years to reach maturity as they migrate between breeding grounds on the Sargasso Sea and the freshwater estuaries on the eastern Atlantic seaboard.

Growth rates under intensive culture depend on both water temperature and population density, but the most expensive cost is the feed.

The conversion rate is 1.8:1 compared to 1.0:1 in salmon and trout farming.

"As little is still known about eel breeding techniques, elvers have to be caught in estuaries, which requires permission from local fishery authorities.

Speaking at the official opening of Aqua Arklow, the minister Mr Gilmore, welcomed the "constructive approach" to this new project shown by the State's regional fisheries boards.

The product is exported live by drivers truck to the Continent - the "method also used by this island's largest wild eel fishery on Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, and by dealers associated with the ESB's eel management programme on the Shannon.

However, eel smoking should be done in Ireland to add value, according to Dr Warrer Hansen. "With the right support, that has to be the next stage," he says.