eel

(ēl)

1. Any of various long, snakelike, scaleless marine or freshwater fishes of the order Anguilliformes or Apodes that lack pelvic fins and characteristically migrate from fresh water to salt water to spawn.
2. Any of several similar fishes, such as the lamprey and electric eel.

[Middle English ele, from Old English ǣl.]

View more Animal Life videos

European eel

A fish measuring up to 5 ft (1.5 m) long and weighing more than 9 lb (4 kg) (the male is smaller than the female). Eel flesh is fine, firm and fatty; its bones are easily removed. Only the American eel is found in North America, whereas the European eel is found near the coasts of Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It is especially enjoyed in Europe and Japan.

When the eel is close to 3 years old, it measures 2-3¹/₂ in. (6-9 cm) in length and is transparent. It is called an "elver" or "glass eel," and its tasty flesh is highly regarded.

Buying

Eel is sold as fillets, steaks or pieces, fresh, smoked, marinated or canned. In some countries, it is kept alive in water tanks.

Preparing

Skin the eel before cooking to remove its excess fat. To do this, cut the eel into thick slices and poach for 1-2 min in boiling water to soften the skin. They can also be grilled without being cooked (the skin blisters and is easily removed).

Serving Ideas

Avoid preparing eel with products that increase its fat content.

Storing

In the fridge: 1-2 days.

Cooking


Grilled, baked, smoked, poached 
or sautéed.

Fried: first poach the eel for 8-12 min in salted water to which 1-2 teaspoons (5-10 ml) of lemon juice has been added.

Eel can also be cooked in stews or soups 
(for example, the fish soup bouillabaisse). The heat takes a certain time to penetrate the eel flesh.

Nutritional Information

Browse other fish: Introduction | Kamaboko | Eel | Bass | Pike | Carp | Pike-perch | Perch | Trout | Mullet | Bluefish | Shad | Sea bass | Sturgeon | Caviar | Sardine | Anchovy | Herring | Monkfish | Mackerel | Gurnard | Sea bream | Conger | Swordfish | Redfish | Goatfish | Salmon | Cod | Smelt | Lamprey | John Dory | Shark | Tuna | Skate | Plaice | Halibut | Sole | Turbot

Browse other foods: Vegetables | Legumes | Fruits | Nuts and Seeds | Seaweeds | Mushrooms | Cereals and Grains | Fish | Crustaceans | Mollusks | Herbs, Spices and Seasonings | Meats | Variety Meats | Delicatessen Meats | Poultry | Dairy Products | Sugars, Cocoa and Carob | Fats and Oils | Binders and Leavenings | Coffee, Tea and Herbal Teas

For more information on eel, visit Britannica.com.

The name for a number of unrelated fish included in the orders Anguilliformes and Cypriniformes.

The true eels are members of the Anguilliformes, which is also known as the Apodes (see table). There are several hundred species, most of which are marine. They are most common in the shallower waters of tropical and subtropical seas, although a few species do occur in colder waters or at considerable depths. See also Anguilliformes.

The family Gymnotidae of the order Cypriniformes contains about 32 species which are found in fresh waters of Central and South America. The electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), the largest and best-known species of the family, may grow to a length of 8 ft (2.4 m) and weigh 60 lb (27 kg). It can produce an electric shock from its electric organs, which extend almost the length of the body. The bodies of the members of this family are eellike and may be naked or scaled. See also Cypriniformes; Electric organ (biology).

A long thin fish, Anguilla anguilla; the conger eel is Conger myriaster. Eels live in rivers but go to sea to breed. A 100-g portion is a rich source of protein, niacin, and vitamins A, D, and B₁₂; a good source of niacin and vitamin B₂; a source of vitamins B₁ and B₆; contains 20 g of fat and supplies 300 kcal (1260 kJ).

The legends of eels have colored folklore throughout the ages. Some Philippine tribes say that eels are the souls of the dead, while in parts of Europe it's believed that rubbing the skin with eel oil will cause a person to see fairies. Whatever their origin or exterior application, eels are widely popular in Europe and Japan, where many consider their rich, sweet, firm meat a delicacy. This rather long, snakelike fish-of which there are both freshwater and saltwater varieties-has a smooth, scaleless skin. It spawns at sea and dies shortly thereafter. The European and American eel breed deep in Atlantic waters near Bermuda. The minuscule, transparent eel larvae drift on ocean currents for enormous distances-their journey to Europe taking about 3 years-until they reach coastal areas. There they transform into tiny, wormlike elvers (baby eel) and begin wriggling up inland waterways and crossing boggy grounds to reach small ponds and streams. After about 10 years of living in this freshwater habitat, the eel begins its migration back to Atlantic waters where it spawns and dies. The conger eel, a scaleless, saltwater "monster" fish that can reach up to 10 feet long and weigh over 170 pounds, is a relative of the common eel. Fresh eels, depending on the region, are available year-round, the fall being the peak season. Those under 2 pounds will be more tender. Before cooking, the thick, tough skin and outer layer of fat must be removed-a task usually handled by the fish dealer. Fresh eel should be refrigerated and used within a day or two. It's excellent baked, stewed or grilled. Because conger eel meat is very tough, it is most often used in soups and stews. Eel is also available jellied in cans or smoked. Though considered a fatty fish, the eel is high in vitamins A and D, as well as being a good source of protein. See also fish.

A common belief was that a long black horsehair thrown into a running stream instantly becomes a live eel or water snake. William Harrison, The Description of England (1587: 321) provides an early reference, although he reserved judgement on the truth of the matter, and in the early 19th century the author of the Denham Tracts (1895: ii. 29) admits to trying it himself as a boy in the north of England. Correspondence in N&Q (7s:2-4 (1886-7) under the heading ‘Animated Horsehairs’ indicates that this had been a very widely held notion in England, Scotland, and elsewhere, at all levels of society well into the late 19th century.

A different correspondent in N&Q reported a belief in eels as a cure for deafness. A woman at Lochleven, who was putting live eels into a bag, told him they were being sent to England to cure a lady of her deafness, and that this was a regular occurrence. Asked if she herself believed in the cure, she answered, ‘Od, I dinna ken, sir, but thae English doctors shudken’. (N&Q 5s:9 (1878), 65). A more generally reported medical use of eels was (and perhaps still is) to wear their skins as a garter as a preventative for cramp, or a cure for rheumatism. Enid Porter (1969: 47, 67, 72, 86-7) gives a full description of how to prepare the skin, plus other eel lore, and Opie and Tatem (1989: 132) give references starting in 1684. A further belief, not confined to Britain, asserts that eels like fish, are killed by thunder (N&Q 10s:2 (1904), 331-2).

The snake-like marine or freshwater fish (order Anguilliformes or Apodes) does not play as important a role in the Celtic imagination as it does elsewhere. Often the eel appears malevolent. The Irish goddess Mórrígan once came to Cúchulainn in the form of an eel, but he repulsed her. Lake monsters may conventionally be referred to as eels. In the west of Ireland whistling eels were thought to foretell famine. Yet at other times eels might be benevolent, such as those thought to be the guardian spirits of wells and magic springs. Pilgrims at the sacred well of Tober Monachan, Co. Kerry, were given the sight of a salmon and an eel, if their petition was to be granted. Modern Irish eascann; Scottish Gaelic easgann; Manx astan; Welsh Ilysywen; Cornish sylly; Breton silienn.

The eel, popularly known for the electrical properties of some species, has been credited with many marvelous virtues. If left to die out of the water, its body steeped in strong vinegar and the blood of a vulture, and the whole placed under a dung-hill, the composition is said to be able to raise from the dead anything brought to it and give it life as before. It has also been said that anyone who eats the still-warm heart of an eel will be seized with the spirit of prophecy and will predict things to come.

Eels figure in the folklore of many countries. The Egyptians worshiped the eel, which their priests alone had the right to eat. In Polynesian, Melanesian, and Indonesian stories, men are sometimes transformed into eels. In the Philippines, eels were believed to be the souls of the dead. In New Zealand, an eel head was eaten to cure toothache. In other countries, eel skins were laid on wounds to heal them. In the United States, there was a folk tradition that eels eat human flesh, and some fishermen were reputed to have caught large quantities of eels with human bait.

In the eighteenth century, magic eels were made of flour and the juice of mutton. There is an anecdote told by William of Malmesbury about a dean of the church of Elgin, in the county of Moray in Scotland, who, having refused to cede his church to some pious monks, was changed, with all his canons, into eels, which the brother cook made into a stew.

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

Eels embody many of the meanings of snakes or serpents, although their watery habitat links them more explicitly with the powers of the unconscious. As phallic symbols, they indicate unconscious sexual desires. They may also symbolize something in the unconscious of which we are afraid.

Elongated, serpent-like fish with no scales. Most are marine species but there are some freshwater types. They are members of the order Apodes and constitute a number of suborders.

• e. rhabdovirus — several isolates from eels have not been shown to be associated with disease in eels, but some are pathogenic for trout and salmon.
• e. stomatopapilloma — thought to be a viral infection.
• e. stripe — see dorsal stripe.

• Fish
• Fish and Shellfish

For other uses, see Eel (disambiguation).

Eels Temporal range: Cretaceous–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N [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;  /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 1 Description 2 Classification 3 Suborders and families 4 Timeline of genera 5 Use by humans 6 Sustainable consumption 7 Etymology 8 In human culture 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Description

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, among rocks, or in cracks found in coral reefs. 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]

Classification

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.^[4]

Suborders and families

Suborder Anguilloidei

• Anguillidae (freshwater eels)
• Chlopsidae (false morays)
• Heterenchelyidae (mud eels)
• Moringuidae (spaghetti eels)
• Muraenidae (moray eels)
• Myrocongridae (thin eels)
• Protanguillidae

Suborder Congroidei

• Colocongridae (worm eels)
• Congridae (congers)
  • Including Macrocephenchelyidae
• Derichthyidae (longneck eels)
  • Including Nessorhamphidae
• Muraenesocidae (pike congers)
• Nettastomatidae (duckbill eels)
• Ophichthidae (snake eels)

Suborder Nemichthyoidei

• Nemichthyidae (snipe eels)
• Serrivomeridae (sawtooth eels)

Suborder Synaphobranchoidei

• Synaphobranchidae (cutthroat eels)
  • Including Dysommidae, Nettodaridae, and Simenchelyidae

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.

Timeline of genera

Use by humans

Eel picker in Maasholm;
sculpture by Bernd Maro

Fish gig inside a museum

Unagi - broiled (kabayaki) eel on rice, served in a lacquered meal box

Eel trap in Denmark around 1900

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.^[5] 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^[6] and other mammals^[7][8][9], 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.^[10][11]

Sustainable consumption

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."^[12]

Etymology

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.^[13] 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 *og^uhis, ēg^uhis. 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.

In human culture

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.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anguilliformes

• Eel life history

References

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. ^ 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. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2880065. 
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ "Poison in the Blood of the Eel", New York Times, 9 April 1899, viewed at [2], accessed 22 January 2010
7. ^ "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..."
8. ^ "Blood serum of the eel." M. Sato. Nippon Biseibutsugakukai Zasshi (1917), 5 (No. 35), From: Abstracts Bact. 1, 474 (1917)
9. ^ "Hemolytic and toxic properties of certain serums." Wm. J. Keffer, Albert E. Welsh. Mendel Bulletin (1936), 8 76-80.
10. ^ http://www.snopes.com/science/eelskin.asp retrieved April 21, 2010
11. ^ 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), http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3089/is_n4_v55/ai_15879342/, retrieved April 21, 2010 
12. ^ Greenpeace International Seafood Red list
13. ^ 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 3851246675. 

• Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: p.560. http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class. Retrieved 2011-05-17. 

External links

• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Anguilliformes" in FishBase. January 2006 version.
• "Anguilliformes". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=161123. Retrieved 04 June 2008. 

v d e Principal commercial fishery species groups Wild Large pelagic fish Mackerel Salmon Shark Swordfish Tuna albacore bigeye Atlantic bluefin Pacific bluefin southern bluefin skipjack yellowfin Forage fish Anchovy Capelin Herring Ilish Menhaden Sardines Shad Demersal fish Catfish Cod Atlantic Pacific Flatfish flounder halibut plaice sole turbot Haddock Mullet Orange roughy Pollock Smelt-whitings Toothfish Freshwater fish Carp Sturgeon Tilapia Trout Other wild fish Eel Whitebait more... Crustaceans Crab Krill Lobster Shrimp more... Molluscs Abalone Mussels Octopus Oysters Scallops Squid more... Echinoderms Sea cucumbers Sea urchin more... Farmed Carp bighead common crucian grass silver Catfish Freshwater prawns Mussels Oysters Salmon Atlantic salmon trout coho chinook Scallops Seaweed Shrimp Tilapia Commercial fishing World fish production Fishing topics Fisheries glossary

v d e Extant Actinopterygii orders by subclass Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Subphylum Vertebrata Infraphylum Gnathostomata Superclass Osteichthyes Chondrostei Polypteriformes Acipenseriformes Neopterygii Lepisosteiformes Amiiformes Osteoglossiformes Hiodontiformes Elopiformes Albuliformes Notacanthiformes Anguilliformes Saccopharyngiformes Clupeiformes Gonorynchiformes Cypriniformes Characiformes Gymnotiformes Siluriformes Salmoniformes Esociformes Osmeriformes Argentiniformes Ateleopodiformes Stomiiformes Aulopiformes Myctophiformes Lampriformes Polymixiiformes Percopsiformes Batrachoidiformes Lophiiformes Gadiformes Ophidiiformes Mugiliformes Atheriniformes Beloniformes Cetomimiformes Cyprinodontiformes Stephanoberyciformes Beryciformes Zeiformes Gasterosteiformes Syngnathiformes Synbranchiformes Tetraodontiformes Pleuronectiformes Scorpaeniformes Perciformes

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ål, åleglat person

Nederlands (Dutch)
aal, paling, gladjakker

Français (French)
n. - anguille

Deutsch (German)
n. - Aal

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ζωολ.) χέλι

Italiano (Italian)
anguilla

Português (Portuguese)
n. - enguia (f) (Zool.)

Русский (Russian)
угорь

Español (Spanish)
n. - anguila

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ål

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
鳗鱼, 圆滑的人, 鳝鱼

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 鰻魚, 圓滑的人, 鱔魚

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 뱀장어

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ウナギ, ウナギに似た魚, 鰻
v. - ウナギ釣りをする, くねくね動く

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الانقليس ( سمك)‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צלופח, אדם חלקלק או חמקמק‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.