![]() However, the Japanese Fisheries Agency does require eel farmers to be licensed. The American eel enjoys no federal protection at all, despite being endangered, and the Japanese eel fares a little better. Other species have been even less fortunate. Conservation efforts continue to struggle, largely because the European eel isn’t half as cuddly as a giant panda! It took another 13 years before the IUCN placed the European eel on its critically endangered list. The European Union mandated that all member countries would need to develop European eel recovery plans in 2007, hoping these efforts would help more adult eels successfully migrate to the sea and see glass eel stocks recover. They found that all three descended from the African longfin eel or Anguilla mossambica. Scientists used whole mitochondrial genome sequences to establish the connection between the American, European, and Japanese eels. PhylogenyĪll species of freshwater eels descended from the same common ancestor, which makes them phylogenetic. The Congroidei suborder is considerably more diverse, containing Snake and Worm eels and aggressive and predatory Conger eels. Cutthroat eels aren’t quite as terrifying as they sound but have their family, Synaphobranchidae, even though they look a lot like the family Anguillidae. The deeper you dig, the more species of eel you find, and the more confusing it becomes. ![]() Freshwater eels belong to the suborder Anguilloidei and the family Anguillidae, which makes them distinct from the weird and wonderful Snipe eels that make up the family Nemichthyoidei. How the Eel’s Diet Develops during Its LifeĮels are so complex and diverse that they have four different suborders, each containing several different families. The eel is now ready to make the long journey back to its birthplace in the spawning grounds of the Sargasso Sea (eels final location), where the entire cycle begins over again. Not only does the eel change color, but its eyes grow, its digestive tract shuts down, and its pectoral fins widen. The transformation into silver eels is one of the strangest. ![]() They then turn into yellow eels and remain in this form for up to 20 years, growing and building up the fat stores they need to survive their final stage of life. Upon entering a freshwater habitat, the glass eel starts to pigment and turns into an elver that travels upstream, searching for their juvenile and adult habitats in which to grow. It takes the larvae between one and three years to reach the coastal waters they need to enter the next phase of their life, and it’s here that they metamorphose into glass eels. You’re too small to swim against the current, so you drift along, going wherever the Gulf stream takes you.įor some leptocephali or eel larvae, that journey only ends 6,500 km away from their spawning ground in the Sargasso Sea. When you hatch out of your egg, you’re just a transparent willow leaflike larvae, all 5mm long. On average, sports fishermen catch around 200 wolf eels per year.All eels share a similar life cycle, but it’s the freshwater eels that are r-eely interesting! Sportsmen also enjoy hunting the fish because of its large size and fearsome appearance. Even though there is no wolf eel industry, fishermen target the fish for its delicate white flesh. Wolf Eels are popular targets among hunters Non-commercial fishermen frequently hunt wolf eels, both legally and illegally.And trawler nets sweeping through reefs destroy coral habitats. ![]() The crab and octopus industries have depleted wolf eel habitats of the eel’s primary food sources. Thus, it is common for wolf eels to become trapped in crab traps while hunting. Wolf eels feed on crustaceans, such as crabs. Commercial fishing deprives wolf eels of food and habitats Even though there is no commercial industry for fishing wolf eels, they are still hurt by the commercial crabbing industry.Wolf eels are not considered an endangered species. However, their population has likely been declining for several years. Commercial fisheries do not target wolf eels, but human activity has been hurting the wolf eel population for decades.
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