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Eel that looks like a banana caught in Shimane Prefecture

Master Blaster Jun 6, 2025
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Come, Mister tally man, tally me eel.

Unusually colored animals have long captivated us, whether it’s golden snakes or a fish with the pattern of a human face on it. Now, a lesser-known uniquely colored animal has appeared in the form of an eel that looks like a banana.

▼ News report showing the eel swimming around some real bananas for comparison’s sake

The banana eel is just an ordinary Japanese eel that underwent a mutation, giving it not only a very banana-like hue but also spots that resemble a very ripe banana. It’s also rather large, at about 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) in length and weighing in at 350 grams (0.77 lbs). According to experts, the fact that it’s a nocturnal animal that burrows itself in the mud means the color was likely not a detriment for it and it was probably about 10 years old.

In fact, its unique colors have spared it from ending up on the dinner table of Akira Ezumi, the 75-year-old fisherman who caught it in Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture. Ezumi said that he had caught especially large eels and even a blue eel before, but this one seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime catch, so he decided to keep it and said he’d donate it to someone willing to give it a good home.

▼ Izumo is very close to the hometown of our reporter Mr. Sato. Maybe his dad will invite a banana eel into his home.

As rare as it is, this isn’t the first banana eel caught in Japan. In 2022, seven-year-old Yoshihito Ueyama also caught one in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, and was thrilled because it gave him something to write about for his summer homework.

Readers of the news online were also surprised and delighted by this kind of rare find, with some wondering what it would be like to eat such an eel.

“Awesome! I’ve never seen that before.”
“That eel has a lot of sugar spots.”
“Is it a golden eel?”
“I wonder if it tastes like banana.”
“I’ve seen eels with yellow bellies, but not like this.”
“I don’t know why but it looks like it smells bad.”
“Is it a banana eel or an eel banana?”
“I thought it looked amazingly like a real banana, but then I realized I was looking at a banana.”
“It’s like a partial albino.”
“Maybe it’s caused by global warming.”
“It looks like an electric type.”
“It’s way too big to look like a banana.”

Some readers also made the common Japanese language mix-up of thinking it was a rabbit that looked like a banana. This is because the Japanese word for eel is “unagi” and the word for rabbit is “usagi.” Even when reading the Japanese characters it can be easy to gloss over that middle one and make a careless mistake.

Unfortunately, for those of us who fell into that trap, it is now impossible not to imagine a rabbit that looks like a banana and want to see one of those too. Hopefully, someone will hurry up and find one soon.

Source: TBS News Dig, Sanin Chuo Shinpo News, Yomiuri Online, Hachima Kiko
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