Demand For American Eel Is Concern For Scientists

Japan consumes 100,000 tons of eel per year, more than two thirds of the worldwide eel catch.

But a decline in Japanese eel stocks and a 2010 European Union ban on exports of the European eel have sparked a "gold rush" for glass eels in Maine.

Kate Taylor, a senior fishery official with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, joins Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson to discuss the health of the U.S. eel population and why these eels are so complicated to manage.