Although it might seem the most mundane of fish when pulled from the mud of creeks, ponds, rivers or the sea, the eel's life cycle is one of the most remarkable on the planet. Freshwater eels are born, according to current scientific theory, in remote ocean depths, and journey thousands of miles to fresh water where they spend their lives, before returning to the ocean to mate and die. A favourite food for humans since antiquity, feeding London's poor during the Middle Ages, and saving the Mayflower pilgrims from starvation on North America's shore, these days the Japanese alone account for an eel consumption worth over a billion pounds a year.Richard Schweid chronicles these creatures in all their aspects: their natural history to their market value; their occurence in art and literature; and their present threatened status. The eel is considered by many to be currently on the road to extinction, and despite repeated attempts to farm them, and the expenditure of huge amounts of time and money, eels have steadfastly refused to reproduce successfully in captivity, apparently requiring the vastness of the open ocean to begin their long drift toward maturity.Containing many little-known facts about this rather surprising fish, this book will appeal to anyone who enjoys well-written natural history, or who wants to learn more about an animal that deserves much more attention than it has received to date.
When pulled from the mud of creeks, ponds, rivers, or the sea, the eel, with its slick, snake-like body, emerges as an extremely mundane and even unappealing fish. But don't let the appearance fool you-the eel has been one of the world's favorite foods since ancient Greece, and the eel's life cycle is one of the most remarkable on the planet-during the middle ages, impoverished Londoners survived on eel and the eel later saved the Mayflower pilgrims from starvation on American shores. In Eel, RichardSchweid chronicles the many facets of these slippery creatures from their natural history to their market value and contemporary consumption to their appearance in art and literature and finally to their present threatened status. So far, eels have steadfastly refused to reproduce in captivity, apparently requiring the vastness of the open ocean to successfully mature-which has imperiled the species' long-term survival. Schweid explains that freshwater eels are born in remote ocean depths and make a journey of thousands of miles to fresh water where they spend most of their lives before making a return journey to the ocean to mate and die. Well-illustrated and containing many little-known facts about this surprising fish, Eel will appeal to general readers of natural history and others wishing to discover something more about the common unagi on the sushi menu.
