Eel
European Eel Scientific name - Anguilla anguilla
Conger Eel Scientific name – Conger conger
Conservation status
There are around 800 species of Eel. In the UK, the two most common are the European Eel and the Conger Eel.
The MCS advise avoiding these species as they both have ‘significant environmental concerns’. The ‘European eel is critically endangered. Even the farming of eels relies on catching juveniles from the wild and growing them in captivity, which adds pressure to wild populations.’ Likewise Conger Eels ‘have very low resilience to fishing and spawn only once’.
The IUCN also place European Eels on the Critically Endangered list and Greenpeace have all Eels on their Red List. As Greenpeace state ‘overfishing has contributed to its severe decline in many regions. Some regulations are now in place to try to aid the recovery of eels’.
Overview
European Eels
After spawning in the Sargasso Sea, European Eels disperse northwards throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The numbers of Eels reaching Europe though is thought to have declined by around 90% since the 1970s. In the UK the European Eel has been used for jellied eels.
They grow up to 1 metre in length and live between 15 and 20 years.
They have long, snake-like bodies and migrate from freshwater rivers to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. European Eels are known for their slippery skin.
They eat plant and animal matter including dead fish. They fall prey to otters, herons, pike, bitterns, and ospreys. As well as humans.
Conger Eels
Conger Eels grow up to 3 metres and are the largest type of Eel by weight in the world.
Their body is very long and without scales. They are usually grey in colour with white bellies. Conger Eels like to live amongst rocks and holes coming out at night to hunt for food – typically crustaceans. They can be aggressive to humans and divers have to be careful.
They are carnivorous, primarily feeding on smaller fish, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. They are eaten by larger fish, seabirds, and even some mammals including humans
Sources
IUCN - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/60344/152845178
IUCN - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/194969/2369649
Marine Conservation Society - https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/species/european-eel/?search=eel
Marine Conservation Society - https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/species/conger-eel/?search=eel
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_eel
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_conger
Greenpeace - http://www.greenpeace-fishforlife.50webs.com/redlists.html