JAPAN NEWS

HASHIMA, Gifu (Jiji Press) — Already the first in the world to achieve full-cycle aquaculture of bluefin tuna, Kinki University has embarked on another mission to save an endangered fish prized as a delicacy in Japan — the sale of newly developed catfish that tastes like eel.

The university recently held events to sell the grilled catfish on a trial basis in Tokyo and Osaka. The dish sold out in both places and drew praise from those who tasted it.

Heartened by the result, the university will participate in a catfish festival in Hashima that will open on Oct. 24 for a two-day run. The university will serve 200 bowls of grilled catfish on rice each day.
Ahead of the festival, Kinki University held a tasting event last week to let local residents, who are used to eating river fish, compare the taste of ordinary and newly developed grilled catfish.

Grilled meat of ordinary catfish disintegrates as soon as it is put into the mouth, but the special catfish meat does not. Rich in fat, the meat tastes like eel.

“I can’t tell the difference,” many participants were heard to say at the tasting event.

Masahiko Ariji, associate professor at the Faculty of Agriculture’s Fisheries Department, started research in 2009 to develop catfish that tastes like eel. He chose that particular fish partly because it can be farmed in facilities used to raise eels.
Catfish “is one of the most eaten farmed freshwater fish in the world,”

Ariji said, but the fish has never caught on in Japan because of its unpleasant smell.

Ariji and his fellows identified the cause of the smell as bacteria in river water. His team managed to reduce the smell significantly by farming catfish using groundwater.

Another innovation was the use of shrimps and other crustaceans as feed, which has given the catfish meat the resilient feel of eel when bitten. The special catfish, however, does not taste as rich as eel. To compensate, the team came up with the idea of using thicker sauce when grilling.
The grilled special catfish is expected to cost about half the price of eel.