As Food
See also: Eel (food)Short-finned eels make excellent eating and has long been esteemed as an important food in the world. Eel or unagi is popular eating in Japan. Glazed eel or unagi-no-kabayaki is grilled and steamed where unadon includes unagi. Prior to European settlement at least two Aboriginal Australian civilisations, the Gunditjmara and the Djab Wurrung from Western Victoria, farmed eels on a large scale, trading smoked eel with distant communities in return for other goods. For the Māori people of New Zealand, starved of protein after the extinction of New Zealand megafauna, the short-finned eel was a significant food resource. Present-day recreational anglers catch and eat them regularly, and New Zealand has a well-established commercial eel fishery.
The consumption of short-finned eels is a longstanding tradition in many pacific nations. New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people had a highly developed fishery for freshwater eels before the arrival of Europeans. Maori people had an extensive knowledge of the ecology of eels and harvested them through a variety of techniques. Maori are now concerned that the commercial fishery is compromising their ability to harvest short-finned eels for ceremonial purposes. Prior to European settlement at least two Aboriginal Australian civilisations, the Gunditjmara and the Djab Wurrung from Western Victoria, farmed eels on a large scale, trading smoked eel with distant communities in return for other goods. For the Māori people of New Zealand, starved of protein after the extinction of New Zealand megafauna, the short-finned eel was a significant food resource. Present-day recreational anglers catch and eat them regularly, and New Zealand has a well-established commercial eel fishery.
Read more about this topic: Short-finned Eel
Famous quotes containing the word food:
“Men should not labor foolishly like brutes, but the brain and the body should always, or as much as possible, work and rest together, and then the work will be of such a kind that when the body is hungry the brain will be hungry also, and the same food will suffice for both; otherwise the food which repairs the waste energy of the overwrought body will oppress the sedentary brain, and the degenerate scholar will come to esteem all food vulgar, and all getting a living drudgery.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Too much food spoils the appetite, and too much talk becomes worthless.”
—Chinese proverb.