Glasswater

Bringing the
eel home

Juvenile American eels leave the United States alive and come back 7,000 miles later as frozen product. Glasswater is building that industry here, from glass eel to plate, and working toward a closed lifecycle.

01 · The American eel

One fish, born at sea.

Born
Sargasso Sea
Range
Greenland to Venezuela
Freshwater phase
Years to decades
Reproduction
One of the hardest unsolved problems in aquaculture

Egg → Leptocephalus → Glass eel → Yellow eel → Silver eel → Spawning, not yet observed

02 · The industry

Ten million pounds a year.

That is roughly how much eel the United States imports each year. The juveniles it starts from are some of the most valuable fish caught in America, by the pound.

U.S. imports
Over 10 million lb of eel a year
Glass eels
Over $2,000 per lb in peak years
Per pound
About 3,000 glass eels

03 · The team

Biology first, then machines.

Glasswater is scientists and engineers building aquaculture the way robotics companies build machines: every tank instrumented, every routine automated, fewer hands on the fish.

Environmental science → Biology → Engineering → Automation

04 · The moonshot

Close the lifecycle.

Grow-out is the first step. The long-term goal is closed-cycle American eel aquaculture: eels bred, hatched and raised entirely on land. No one has done it.

Breed → Hatch → Grow → Harvest → Repeat