New hope for Japan's summer delicacy

FUJISAWA, Japan - The summer delicacy of roasted eel, braised with a tangy sauce and sprinkled with prickly mountain pepper, is in question as the creatures with their mysterious migrations become increasingly endangered.

Soaring demand for Japanese eel, or Anguilla japonica, helped put the creatures on the International Union of Conservation of Nature's Red List of endangered species in 2014. It's spurring poaching of similar species off the US east coast.

But Katsumi Tsukamoto, "Dr Eel" of the only "Eel Science Laboratory" at Nihon University in Japan, thinks he's unlocked the secrets to eventually farming the eels, known as unagi, sustainably and profitably. Tsukamoto found out where the eels are spawning, and that helped researchers study conditions needed to raise them from the egg stage to adulthood.