Christmas Tree Powered By Electric Eel In Japan (VIDEO)

Here's an eco-friendly Christmas option that you probably won't be trying at home. The Aqua Toto Gifu Aquarium, found south of Tokyo, Japan uses eels to light their Christmas tree.

When the electric eel moves, two aluminum panels collect electricity and power the Christmas tree lights. The aquarium has been featuring this unusual exhibit for the past five years to encourage eco-sensitivity. Rockefeller Center Tree, it appears you have been upstaged.

WATCH an eel electrify a Christmas tree:

Comments

[jimboy71]

03:02 PM on 12/29/2010

And the point of this is?

[Tygartman]

02:49 PM on 12/27/2010

Isn't that holding the eel in indentured servitude?

[PresidentRobertBooth]

05:46 PM on 12/26/2010

Oil companies will launch a smear campaign against the eel.

[Georgia Yankee]

03:58 PM on 12/26/2010

Eco friendly and a great Japanese meal after the holidays.

[JR Jake]

02:33 PM on 12/26/2010

OLD news...The other day I watched a video clip of a scientist in Canada in the 1950's did the same thing and 50 years later we are still marveling at something that is quite an accomplishment for the eel and not for man however.

[PNWTrillium]

01:18 PM on 12/26/2010

I first thought it was interesting but then thought putting the eel in small tank was not cool. I also thought the Santa was a good idea but I think we already get that we need to find alternatives ways for energy and this whole thing is kind of lame. Just make us stuff that works well, economical and folks will buy and use it. We don't need a Santa to convince us anymore. Redundant point and could have used that opportunity to display some folks would actually use and buy. Fail.

[genrel1248]

01:16 PM on 12/26/2010

Sure its eco-friendly...but did you ever try to get an electric eel to hold still while you stick an electric plug up its outlet.

[keemia]

12:58 PM on 12/26/2010

"eco-friendly" for who? I thought the eels discharge electricity when they feel they're being attacked. So the poor eel is always in the state of defense. Sucks for the eel.

[story1]

12:39 PM on 12/26/2010

The irony of it all. Trapping the eel in an aquarium which probably requires electricity for what? For the purpose of lighting artificial decorations on an artificial tree. Wonder how much pollution was generated in making those decorations and lights.

[SiberianRat]

10:18 AM on 12/26/2010

So, the eel is trapped in a tiny box?

[sparkey]

10:09 AM on 12/26/2010

All my comments on every story are now pending. I have struck a nerve. Must have been something I said.

[keemia]

12:59 PM on 12/26/2010

All my comments that go into the "pending" bucket never get posted. Maybe 10% of them do.

[jimboy71]

03:03 PM on 12/29/2010

There is a difference between "all" and 10% dear.

[LarryinMiami]

09:34 AM on 12/26/2010

I am a wise-cracker, and when someone (that I know well) is dressed to "kill," I like to say "Oh my! You look STUNNING!" Then I add, "Like an electric eel!"

[Chucktheman]

07:51 AM on 12/26/2010

I wonder how many gallons of gas it takes to run an eel? LOL

[Ann-Pittsburgh]

06:44 AM on 12/26/2010

Does anyone know if there has been an effort to capture the energy generated by folks working out on exercise bikes and other equipment in gyms? It would be interesting to see if all that sweat labor could power the lights or even the water heater.

[padrushka]

08:18 AM on 12/26/2010

don't know but there are some euro discos that use power from dance floors.

[Ann-Pittsburgh]

09:28 AM on 12/26/2010

Brilliant. Harnessing the foot-power from exercise bikes in gyms might be a fun and profitable initiative for a talented electrical engineer, which I am not. I imagine the electrical bills for gym businesses is huge, largely because of the cost of providing all those hot showers.

[mados123]

10:03 AM on 12/26/2010

"The Green MicroGym" is one company focusing on that goal. Below is also a great article in Popular Science that explains about "Kinetic Energy Harvesting." It also refers to the dance floor mentioned previously.

http://thegreenmicrogym.com
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-01/harvesting-energy-humans

[Ann-Pittsburgh]

11:06 AM on 12/26/2010

Thanks so much, mados. This will be perfect apres-holiday reading.

[Jeffrey A Beard]

06:15 AM on 12/26/2010

How many eels would it take to power a two bedroom house?