Around 1,700 elvers brought in by plane from Kobe were released into tanks at a facility of White Data Center (WDC) on Feb. 25. WDC plans to market the adult fish as "the first eel cultured in Hokkaido." The company's goal is to use as an energy source the heavy snowfalls that cause problems for Bibai residents every winter. It started the data center business in April last year, and construction of a large building will begin for full-scale operation in fiscal 2022.