Eels

[Stooo]

What's the story?

Johannes Schmidt spent 25 years chasing an enigmatic fish across the Atlantic Ocean. The Danish biologist surrendered the hunt only after his ship was torn to pieces on a Caribbean coral reef. Schmidt was trying to solve an ancient mystery about one of nature’s strangest fish: eels. Aristotle suggested the slithering species emerged spontaneously from the earth. But by the early 1900s, Schmidt and others suspected eels bred in the open ocean, instead of their lifelong freshwater homes.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet ... shing-eels

My old dad used to love his jellied eels, disgusting mess that they are. I did used to like the mash, mutton pies and liquor though

So what is an eel? They appear to be beyond pansexual and able to change their sex at will. They are assumed to mate in the Sargasso Sea but no-one has ever observed an eel mating. I remember watching a vid of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall dragging elvers (baby eels) out of a river and bunging them in a hot frying pan before noshing down which did nothing to fuel my desire to eat the things. We know so little about this common animal.

[LordRaven]

What's the story?

Johannes Schmidt spent 25 years chasing an enigmatic fish across the Atlantic Ocean. The Danish biologist surrendered the hunt only after his ship was torn to pieces on a Caribbean coral reef. Schmidt was trying to solve an ancient mystery about one of nature’s strangest fish: eels. Aristotle suggested the slithering species emerged spontaneously from the earth. But by the early 1900s, Schmidt and others suspected eels bred in the open ocean, instead of their lifelong freshwater homes.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet ... shing-eels

My old dad used to love his jellied eels, disgusting mess that they are. I did used to like the mash, mutton pies and liquor though

So what is an eel? They appear to be beyond pansexual and able to change their sex at will. They are assumed to mate in the Sargasso Sea but no-one has ever observed an eel mating. I remember watching a vid of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall dragging elvers (baby eels) out of a river and bunging them in a hot frying pan before noshing down which did nothing to fuel my desire to eat the things. We know so little about this common animal.

The sargasso sea has always been in my mind the breeding ground of eels but I had no idea how that theory was arrived at --thanks!

A very interesting article that explains so much that I had no idea about, the mass orgy breeding theory for european and american eels must happen separately in the deep below the sargasso sea (as suggested) but eels in Africa and Norway having very much the same DNA and temperature tolerances is an eye opener.

I wonder if they will ever get to film the spawning, swimming all that way out into the ocean just to breed and die seems mad.
Living in freshwater growing to adulthood and then swimming thousands of miles out into the sea getting scoffed by predators all the way suggests that they breed in truly enormous numbers.

What is truly astounding when reading that is the tiny fry, either going to America or Europe, navigating using the earth's magnetism --as per the experiments mentioned. How on earth something so tiny can even swim in the right direction in a moving ocean is baffling and to be able to navigate is mind boggling --and what do they use as energy, what do they eat to go thousands of miles toward freshwater? It is truly amazing.

[common sense]

Loch Ness is teeming with eels of all sizes and some are very large. It's thought that the Loch Ness monster may be a giant eel.

[LordRaven]

Loch Ness is teeming with eels of all sizes and some are very large. It's thought that the Loch Ness monster may be a giant eel.

"Scientists DNA testing Loch Ness for traces of monster make ‘surprising’ discovery
A New Zealand team of scientists who DNA tested Scotland’s Loch Ness for traces of the beast have made a “surprising” discovery."

https://www.news.com.au/travel/destinat ... 201%3A01pm

Eels hey? They get everywhere.

[Stooo]

Loch Ness is teeming with eels of all sizes and some are very large. It's thought that the Loch Ness monster may be a giant eel.

"Scientists DNA testing Loch Ness for traces of monster make ‘surprising’ discovery
A New Zealand team of scientists who DNA tested Scotland’s Loch Ness for traces of the beast have made a “surprising” discovery."

https://www.news.com.au/travel/destinat ... 201%3A01pm

Eels hey? They get everywhere.

The bloke who took the picture of Nessie confirmed that it was a hoax made up because he was fed up with people taking the piss because the prints that he found were made with a rhinoceros foot on a photo set, death bed confession.

[common sense]

Loch Ness is teeming with eels of all sizes and some are very large. It's thought that the Loch Ness monster may be a giant eel.

"Scientists DNA testing Loch Ness for traces of monster make ‘surprising’ discovery
A New Zealand team of scientists who DNA tested Scotland’s Loch Ness for traces of the beast have made a “surprising” discovery."

https://www.news.com.au/travel/destinat ... 201%3A01pm

Eels hey? They get everywhere.

The bloke who took the picture of Nessie confirmed that it was a hoax made up because he was fed up with people taking the piss because the prints that he found were made with a rhinoceros foot on a photo set, death bed confession.

I'm a firm believer in Nessie and so was naturalist Peter Scott. There has to be something very big in there or a family of them. Too many people, some very trustworthy, have seen something.

[Stooo]

Loch Ness is teeming with eels of all sizes and some are very large. It's thought that the Loch Ness monster may be a giant eel.

"Scientists DNA testing Loch Ness for traces of monster make ‘surprising’ discovery
A New Zealand team of scientists who DNA tested Scotland’s Loch Ness for traces of the beast have made a “surprising” discovery."

https://www.news.com.au/travel/destinat ... 201%3A01pm

Eels hey? They get everywhere.

The bloke who took the picture of Nessie confirmed that it was a hoax made up because he was fed up with people taking the piss because the prints that he found were made with a rhinoceros foot on a photo set, death bed confession.

I'm a firm believer in Nessie and so was naturalist Peter Scott. There has to be something very big in there or a family of them. Too many people, some very trustworthy, have seen something.

Yeah but you're a bit daft Chris, no offence like.

[drum]

Loch Ness is teeming with eels of all sizes and some are very large. It's thought that the Loch Ness monster may be a giant eel.

"Scientists DNA testing Loch Ness for traces of monster make ‘surprising’ discovery
A New Zealand team of scientists who DNA tested Scotland’s Loch Ness for traces of the beast have made a “surprising” discovery."

https://www.news.com.au/travel/destinat ... 201%3A01pm

Eels hey? They get everywhere.

The bloke who took the picture of Nessie confirmed that it was a hoax made up because he was fed up with people taking the piss because the prints that he found were made with a rhinoceros foot on a photo set, death bed confession.

Its a very deep lock, shows and currents will have you seeing allsorts... Nessie is as real as bottled Scotch Mist
I'm a firm believer in Nessie and so was naturalist Peter Scott. There has to be something very big in there or a family of them. Too many people, some very trustworthy, have seen something.

[Stooo]

Once worth a bit on the export market, the eel...

[drum]

eww no! just couldn't.

[art0hur0moh]

[Stooo]

Lough Neagh eel fishermen will have to find new markets for a fifth of their catch due to Brexit and the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

It means finding new buyers for 50 tonnes of eels, worth £500,000, just months before the start of this year's season.

The fish would traditionally have gone to Billingsgate Market in London and been sold as jellied eels.

But the complexities of Brexit mean that trade is no longer possible.

It comes as restocking Lough Neagh with juvenile fish becomes more complex and costly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55818519

Can't sell the ones we breed, can't buy the ones we eat.

[Major]

This is a eel