Anago is one of those sea dogs, they swim in the bay and have the most unusual amount of small almost invisible bones. These bones after being cooked become soft and harmless. This anago is wild caught but in many sushi bars they serve farmed eel but they aren’t much different from farmed anything.

Sea eels are actually fish and their name comes from ana-no-ko which means hole dwellers. They like holes on the sea bottom and during the day they sleep in there, and during the night they stick their heads out to eat. They can be caught in traps that imitate the environment they like.

Fishermen use traps called anago-zutsu which are basically plastic pipes 10cm in diameter with many small holes to let baby fish escape. Frozen sardines are used inside for bait, then fits a cone-shaped device into the end of each trap. The cone guides the eels along as it tapers down to a narrow hole, then traps them inside.

Photo: farmed photograph internet