Move Over Salmon: Indonesian Eel Found to Have World's Highest Omega-3 Content

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Sidat (eel), a fish native to Indonesia, is known to contain very high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids. Its content is even said to surpass the Omega-3 found in salmon and snakehead fish.

In addition to being rich in Omega-3, sidat also contains various other essential nutrients, such as vitamin A, B-complex vitamins, iron, protein, calories and phosphorus.

“All this time, we always assumed salmon had the highest levels, but it turns out sidat actually has the highest nutritional value,” said Gadis Sri Haryani, Principal Expert Researcher at the Limnology and Water Resources Research Centre of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), quoted from BRIN’s official website on Sunday (26/7/2026).

Sidat is highly beneficial for the human body as it contains Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) for brain development and function, as well as Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA), which helps reduce inflammation while maintaining heart health.

Furthermore, sidat is one of Indonesia’s fishery resources with significant strategic economic potential. Gadis emphasised the need for a science-based sustainable management approach to prevent overexploitation that could threaten the sidat population in the future.

Sidat has a catadromous life cycle, meaning it spends most of its life in freshwater and only migrates to sea waters when it is ready to spawn.

“Catadromous means that when it hatches from an egg at sea, it becomes a leptocephalus, or a unique eel larva that is flat, transparent and leaf-shaped, and does not yet have the ability to swim,” she explained.

“Then, during its journey from deep sea waters to the estuary – a semi-enclosed body of water at the river mouth where freshwater mixes with seawater – this larva transforms into a glass eel,” she added.