Do Not Mess With Fish 60!

and you thought fish were fun! as long ago as 243BC people wondered where eels came from, some said from horses tail hairs when they dropped in to the water, but now scientist know of their incredible journey, the smallest larvae of the European eel are found in the mid-Atlantic Sargasso Sea, how the spawning adults get there and how long it takes them is one of the animal kingdom’s most enduring mysteries: bar a single specimen recovered from the belly of a sperm whale, not a single silver eel has ever been recovered from the open ocean, but with the help of a tiny floating tag, the first details of their epic journey are being revealed, every November, when the Moon is at its darkest, there’s a stirring on riverbeds, lake bottoms and marshlands around Europe, countless silver serpents respond to an ancient urge and turn towards faster-moving water, beginning a perilous, 4,500-mile journey down deep ocean trenches and across undersea mountain ranges, the early phases of the eel’s life are also dramatic, after riding ocean currents from the Sargasso Sea to European coastal waters, the larval stage metamorphoses into glass eels, the saltwater glass eels throng upstream through river mouths and begin to change into freshwater-dwelling elvers, they remain in this form — coloured yellow, green or brown — until it is time for their return, when they transmute one final time, taking on their silver skin and adapting their bodies for the harshness of a saltwater environment, and I just love then, smoked or jellied!