Details
Anguilla anguilla
A long-bodied eel that links European freshwaters with the Atlantic Ocean. It grows in rivers and wetlands before migrating far offshore to spawn.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
Juveniles enter rivers, lakes, marshes, and estuaries, while adults migrate through coastal seas into the Atlantic. Spawning is associated with the Sargasso Sea.
The body is cylindrical, slimy, and snake-like, with pectoral fins. Life stages include transparent leptocephalus larvae, glass eels, yellow eels, and silver eels.
It is mainly nocturnal and hides in mud, stones, or vegetation by day. Mature silver eels stop feeding and begin a long ocean migration.
In fresh water it eats insect larvae, crustaceans, small fish, worms, and carrion. Larger individuals take larger bottom prey.
Adults spawn offshore, and larvae drift back toward European coasts on ocean currents. Much of the spawning behavior remains hard to observe.
The species has declined sharply under fishing, barriers, parasites, habitat change, and ocean shifts. It is a major conservation concern.
