For other uses, see Eel (disambiguation).
Nabil Mailloux
Temporal range: Cretaceous–Recent
[1]
American eel, Anguilla rostrata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Subclass: Neopterygii
Infraclass: Teleostei
Superorder: Elopomorpha
Order: Anguilliformes
L. S. Berg, 1940
Suborders

Anguilloidei
Congroidei
Nemichthyoidei
Synaphobranchoidei

Eels (Anguilliformes; play /æŋˌɡwɪlɨˈfɔrmiːz/) are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators. The term "eel" is also used for some other similarly shaped fish, such as electric eels and spiny eels, but these are not members of the Anguilliformes order.

Contents

Description [link]

Eels are elongated fish, ranging in length from 5 centimetres (2.0 in) in the one-jawed eel (Monognathus ahlstromi) to 4 metres (13 ft) in the slender giant moray.[2] Adults range in weight from 30 grams to well over 25 kilograms. They possess no pelvic fins, and many species also lack pectoral fins. The dorsal and anal fins are fused with the caudal or tail fin, forming a single ribbon running along much of the length of the animal.[1] Most eels live in the shallow waters of the ocean and burrow into sand, mud, or amongst rocks. A majority of eel species are nocturnal, and thus are rarely seen. Sometimes, they are seen living together in holes, or "eel pits". Some species of eels also live in deeper water on the continental shelves and over the slopes deep as 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Only members of the Anguillidae family regularly inhabit fresh water, but they too return to the sea to breed.[3]

Eels begin life as flat and transparent larvae, or leptocephali. Eel larvae drift in the surface waters of the sea feeding on marine snow, small particles that float in the water. Eel larvae then metamorphose into glass eels and then become elvers before finally seeking out their juvenile and adult habitats.[2] Freshwater elvers travel upstream and are forced to climb up obstructions such as weirs, dam walls and natural waterfalls. Lady Colin Campbell found that at Ballisodare the eel fisheries were greatly improved by the hanging of loosely plaited grass ladders over barriers, enabling the elvers to ascend. The daylight passage in the spring of elvers upstream along the Thames was called "eelfare", and it is thought that the word 'elver' is a corruption thereof. [4]

Classification [link]

A moray eel.
Juvenile American eels
Garden eels

This classification follows FishBase in dividing the eels into fifteen families. Additional families that are included in other classifications (notably ITIS and Systema Naturae 2000) are noted below the family with which they are synomized in the Fish Base system.

The origin of the fresh water species has been problematic. Genomic studies indicate that they are a monophyletic group which originated among the deep-sea eels.[5]

Suborders and families [link]

Suborder Anguilloidei

Suborder Congroidei

Suborder Nemichthyoidei

Suborder Synaphobranchoidei

In some classifications the family Cyematidae of bobtail snipe eels is included in the Anguilliformes, but in the FishBase system that family is included in the order Saccopharyngiformes.

The electric eel of South America is not a true eel, but is more closely related to the Carp and catfishes.

Commercial species [link]

Main commercial species
Common name Scientific name Maximum
length		 Common
length		 Maximum
weight		 Maximum
age		 Trophic
level		 FishBase FAO ITIS IUCN status
American eel Anguilla rostrata (Lesueur, 1817) 152 cm 50 cm 7.33 kg 43 years 3.7 [6] [7] Not assessed
European eel Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758) 50 cm 35 cm 6.6 kg 88 years 3.5 [8] [9] [10] CR IUCN 3 1.svg Critically endangered[11]
Japanese eel Anguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel, 1846 150 cm 40 cm 1.89 kg years 3.6 [12] [13] [14] Not assessed
Short-finned eel Anguilla australis Richardson, 1841 130 cm 45 cm 7.48 kg 32 years 4.1 [15] [16] Not assessed

Use by humans [link]

See also: Eel (food)
Eel picker in Maasholm;
sculpture by Bernd Maro
Photo of thin-sliced fish in restaurant setting
Unagi - broiled (kabayaki) eel on rice, served in a lacquered meal box
Drawing of man standing on pier, with the shore to the left and a nested series of cone-shaped nets extending along the water surface to the right
Eel trap in Denmark around 1900
Special boats to transport live eels - Comacchio - Ferrara - Italy
Special boats to transport live eels Comacchio

Freshwater eels (unagi) and marine eels (conger eel, anago) are commonly used in Japanese cuisine; foods such as Unadon and Unajuu are popular but expensive. Eels are also very popular in Chinese cuisine, and are prepared in many different ways. Hong Kong eel prices have often reached 1000 HKD per kilogram, and once exceeded 5000 HKD per kilogram. Eel is also popular in Korean cuisine and is seen as a source of stamina for men.[citation needed] The European eel and other freshwater eels are eaten in Europe, the United States, and other places. A traditional east London food is jellied eels, although their demand has significantly declined since World War II. The Basque delicacy angulas consists of deep-fried elver (young eels); elver eels usually reach prices of up to 1000 euro per kilogram.[17] New Zealand longfin eel is a traditional Māori food in New Zealand. In Italian cuisine eels from the Valli di Comacchio, a swampy zone along the Adriatic coast, are specially prized along with freshwater eels of Bolsena Lake. In northern Germany, The Netherlands, the Czech republic, Poland, Denmark and Sweden, smoked eel is considered a delicacy.

Fishermen consumed elvers as a cheap dish, but environmental changes have reduced eel populations. They are now considered a delicacy and are priced at up to £700 per kg in the United Kingdom.[citation needed]

Eels, particularly the Moray eel, are popular among marine aquarists.

Eel blood is toxic to humans[18] and other mammals[19][20][21], but both cooking and the digestive process destroy the toxic protein. The toxin derived from eel blood serum was used by Charles Richet in his Nobel winning research which discovered anaphylaxis (by injecting it into dogs and observing the effect).

Eelskin leather is highly prized. It is very smooth and exceptionally strong. However, it does not come from eels. It comes from the Pacific Hagfish, a jawless fish which is also known as the slime eel.[22][23]

In human culture [link]

A famous attraction on the French Polynesian island of Huahine (part of the Society Islands) is the bridge across a stream hosting 3–6-foot (0.91–1.8 m) long eels, deemed sacred by local culture.

Sustainable consumption [link]

In 2010, Greenpeace International has added the European eel, Japanese eel and American eel to its seafood red list."The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries."[24]

Etymology [link]

Photo of eight eels on white sheet
Gerookte paling (Dutch for smoked eel)

The English name eel descends from Old English ǽl, Common Germanic *ǣlaz. Also from the common Germanic are German Aal, Middle Dutch ael, Old High German âl, Old Norse áll. Katz (1998) identifies a number of Indo-European cognates, among them the second part of the Latin name of the eels, anguilla, which is attested in its simplex form illa in a glossary only, and likewise the Greek word for "eel", egkhelys, the second part being attested in Hesychius as elyes.[25] The first compound member, anguis "snake", is cognate to other Indo-European words for "snake", cf. Old Irish escung "eel", Old High German unc "snake", Lithuanian angìs, Greek ophis, okhis, Vedic Sanskrit áhi, Avestan aži, Armenian auj, iž, Old Church Slavonic *ǫžь, all from Proto-Indo-European *oguhis, ēguhis. The word also appears in Old English igil "hedgehog" (named as the "snake eater"), and perhaps in the egi- of Old High German egidehsa "wall lizard". The name of Bellerophon (Βελλεροφόντης, attested in a variant Ἐλλεροφόντης in Eustathius of Thessalonica) according to this theory is also related, translating to "the slayer of the serpent" (ahihán), the ελλερο- being an adjective for a lost ελλυ- "snake", directly comparable to Hittite ellu-essar- "snake pit". This myth likely came to Greece via Anatolia, and in the Hittite version, the dragon is called Illuyanka, the illuy- part being cognate to the illa word, and the -anka part being cognate to the angu word for "snake". As designations for "snake" (and similar shaped animals) are often liable to taboo in many Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages, no unambiguous Proto-Indo-European form for the eel word can thus be reconstructed, it could have been *ēl(l)-u-, *ēl(l)-o- or similar.

Timeline of genera [link]

See also [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anguilliformes

References [link]

  1. ^ a b Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2009). "Anguilliformes" in FishBase. January 2009 version.
  2. ^ a b McCosker, John F. (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N.. ed. Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 86–90. ISBN 0-12-547665-5. 
  3. ^ Prosek, James (2010). Eels. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-056611-1. 
  4. ^ "A Book of the Running Brook and Still Water"
  5. ^ Inoue, Jun G.; et al. (2010). "Deep-ocean origin of the freshwater eels". Biol. Lett. 6 (3): 363–366. DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0989. PMC 2880065. PMID 20053660. //www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2880065. 
  6. ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2012). "Anguilla rostrata" in FishBase. May 2012 version.
  7. ^ "Anguilla rostrata". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=161996. Retrieved April 2012. 
  8. ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2012). "Anguilla anguilla" in FishBase. May 2012 version.
  9. ^ Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758) FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  10. ^ "Anguilla anguilla". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=161128. Retrieved May 2012. 
  11. ^ Freyhof, J and Kottelat M (2010). "Anguilla anguilla". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. https://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/60344. Retrieved 20 May 2012. 
  12. ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2012). "Anguilla japonica" in FishBase. May 2012 version.
  13. ^ Anguilla japonica, Temminck & Schlegel, 1846 FAO, Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved May 2012.
  14. ^ "Anguilla japonica". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=161134. Retrieved May 2012. 
  15. ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2012). "Anguilla australis" in FishBase. May 2012 version.
  16. ^ "Anguilla australis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=161133. Retrieved May 2012. 
  17. ^ [1]
  18. ^ "Poison in the Blood of the Eel", New York Times, 9 April 1899, viewed at [2], accessed 22 January 2010
  19. ^ "The plight of the eel", BBC online, as seen at [3], accessed 22 January 2010, mentions that "Only 0.1ml/kg is enough to kill small mammals, such as a rabbit..."
  20. ^ "Blood serum of the eel." M. Sato. Nippon Biseibutsugakukai Zasshi (1917), 5 (No. 35), From: Abstracts Bact. 1, 474 (1917)
  21. ^ "Hemolytic and toxic properties of certain serums." Wm. J. Keffer, Albert E. Welsh. Mendel Bulletin (1936), 8 76-80.
  22. ^ https://www.snopes.com/science/eelskin.asp retrieved April 21, 2010
  23. ^ Barss, William (1993), "Pacific hagfish, Eptatretus stouti, and black hagfish, E. deani: the Oregon Fishery and Port sampling observations, 1988-92", Marine Fisheries Review (Fall, 1993), https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3089/is_n4_v55/ai_15879342/, retrieved April 21, 2010 
  24. ^ Greenpeace International Seafood Red list
  25. ^ Katz, J. (1998). "How to be a Dragon in Indo-European: Hittite illuyankas and its Linguistic and Cultural Congeners in Latin, Greek, and Germanic". In Jasanoff; Melchert; Oliver. Mír Curad. Studies in Honor of Calvert Watkins. Innsbruck. pp. 317–334. ISBN 3-85124-667-5. 

External links [link]

Eels
True eels
American eel
Other eels
As food
Related topics
Principal commercial fishery species groups
Wild
Atlantic cod

Lobster

Pacific oysters
Farmed
Extant Actinopterygii orders by subclass
Chondrostei
Neopterygii

https://wn.com/Eel

Eel (disambiguation)

An eel is a fish in the order of Anguilliformes.

Eel or eels may also refer to:

Aviation

  • Entwicklung und Erprobung von Leichtflugzeugen, a German aircraft design concern based in Putzbrunn, known as EEL

    • Biology

    Ray-finned fish

  • Electric Eel, a species of knifefish in the order of Gymnotiformes
  • Spiny Eel
  • Fire eel
  • Deep-Sea Spiny Eels, a common name for fish in the family Notacanthidae, order Notacanthiformes

    • Amphibians

  • Congo eel, amphibians of the genus Amphiuma (order Caudata)
  • Siren intermedia or two-legged eel or mud eel
  • Rubber eel, an aquatic caecilian of the family Typhlonectidae (order Gymnophiona)

    • Culture

  • Eel (food), the flesh of true eels as eaten by humans

    • Places

  • Eel River (disambiguation)
  • Eel Glacier, Washington state, United States
  • Eel Township, Cass County, Indiana

    • Nicknames

  • Camille Henry (1933-1997), "The Eel", Canadian hockey player
  • Eric the Eel or Eric Moussambani, Equatorial Guinean swimmer

    • Abbreviations

  • EEL (Extensible Embeddable Language), a scripting and programming language
    • Read more
    This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Eel_(disambiguation)

    Cobra Troopers

    The Cobra Troopers are the basic Cobra foot soldiers who serve as the backbone of the Cobra Organization. They are generally depicted as legions of uniformed soldiers, nearly all of them masked to appear anonymous, and widely diversified according to specialties and functions.

    History

    The Cobra Troopers were introduced in 1982, with the code name "The Enemy". These are the original "blueshirt" infantry soldiers equipped with conventional military gear (as opposed to the more hi-tech accouterments of the later Vipers). They were prominently featured on both the cartoon and comic series, and depicted as unintelligent and slightly cowardly.

    Later, Cobra troopers consisted of communications troops, computer specialists, security, and soldiers. Some of the more prominent include:

    Eels

    The Cobra Eels are the underwater demolition specialists of the Cobra legions. They undergo a rigorous two-part training program, first in the shark and pirate infested waters of the Caribbean, and then in the frigid depths of the North Atlantic. Their training regimen includes marine engineering, explosive ordnance, underwater fighting techniques, and marine geology. Eels are responsible for manning and operating Cobra marine outposts disguised as off-shore drilling rigs, and for augmenting the crews of large Cobra naval vessels.

    Read more
    This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Cobra_Troopers

    Inter

    Inter may refer to:

    Football clubs

  • Inter Milan, an Italian football club
  • Sport Club Internacional, a Brazilian football club
  • FC Inter Turku, a Finnish football club
  • FK Inter Bratislava, a former Slovak football club
  • NK Inter Zaprešić, a Croatian football club
  • Internaţional Curtea de Argeş, a Romanian football club
  • Esporte Clube Internacional, a Brazilian football club from Santa Maria
  • Esporte Clube Internacional (SC), a Brazilian football club from Lages
  • Associação Atlética Internacional, a Brazilian football club from Limeira
  • Inter Luanda, an Angolan football club
  • FC Inter Baku, an Azerbaijani football club
  • Inter Club d'Escaldes, an Andorran football club
  • FC Inter Leipzig, a German football club
  • Inter Cardiff FC, a Welsh football club, now defunct

    • Other

  • An intersexual person
  • Inter Channel, a television channel dedicated to Inter Milan
  • Inter (TV channel), Ukrainian TV-channel
  • Inter (Venezuelan broadcaster), a Venezuelan telecommunications company
  • Inter (band), British band
  • Inter-American University of Puerto Rico
    • Read more
    This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Inter

    Associação Atlética Internacional

    Associação Atlética Internacional may refer to the following Brazilian football clubs:

  • Associação Atlética Internacional (Bebedouro), a club from Bebedouro, São Paulo state
  • Associação Atlética Internacional (Limeira), a club from Limeira, São Paulo state
    • Read more
    This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Associação_Atlética_Internacional

    Inter (Venezuelan broadcaster)

    Inter is a Venezuelan television broadcaster and telecommunications provider headquartered in Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela. Inter was founded in 1996 as InterCable.

    See also

  • Inter (disambiguation)

    • References

    External links

  • Official website of Inter


    • Read more
    This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Inter_(Venezuelan_broadcaster)

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