Eel

Eels (Anguilla rostrata) have an amazing life cycle, called catadromous, which begins with birth in the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. They drift on the Gulf Stream as transparent or “glass” eels to freshwater rivers and lakes, where they grow to be elvers and adults. Adult eels migrate back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die.

As food, eel is not much appreciated in America, although historically it was speared and trapped by Native Americans and English colonists. The Indian nation name “Algonquin” means “at the place of spearing fishes and eels.” In the nineteenth century eel was caught to add variety to the diet and was most esteemed by European immigrants, particularly those from Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Asians value eel very highly. Since the 1970s a market for elvers in Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea has supplied eel for pond raising to adult size. The demand collapsed in the 1980s but returned in the 1990s, making elvers one of the most valuable per-pound catches. In some parts of the United States, there is a concern that the elver harvest is too great and that not enough eels find their way to the streams and lakes. The season for elvers usually is limited to three months in the spring, and hand dip nets, or fykes, must be used.