Most people are familiar with the eel (Anguilla anguilla). It is part of our culture and well known as smoked eel. Nevertheless, it is one of the most mysterious fish species in our waters.
© Stefan LudwigThe length of its migration route puts all other migratory fish in the shade. Unlike salmon and trout, it does not spawn in fresh water, but at great depths in the Sargasso Sea. This lies off the east coast of America, roughly in the region of the infamous Bermuda Triangle.
The small eels, known as willow leaf larvae, migrate with the Gulf Stream from the east coast of the USA to the European river mouths. There they transform into small transparent eels, known as glass eels, which then travel up the rivers to our streams, lakes, ponds, and pools.
No one has ever observed eels reproducing naturally. Artificial reproduction has not been entirely successful.
Every eel that ends up on our plate as smoked eel or lives in the small ditch behind our house has made this long journey, and if we let it, it will swim across the Atlantic to the Sargasso Sea as a fully grown fish after about 10 years.
Unfortunately, most eels will never reach the Sargasso Sea. Many turbines on the way to the sea cut the fish into pieces or damage them so badly that they cannot make the long journey.