European eel
Anguilla anguilla · Everything else
Also called eel, silver eel, bootlace
A protected species. If you catch one, handle it carefully and put it back alive.
A snake-like eel that grows up in rivers and the sea and spawns in the Sargasso Sea. It is Critically Endangered and rod-caught eels must be returned.[1]
How to recognise it
- Long, round body with a single fin running round the tail, and no pelvic fins.[1]
- Greenish-brown; silver eels are dark above and silver below, with a black lateral line and big eyes.[1]
- The lower jaw sticks out slightly past the upper. Compare with conger, which is scaleless and has a much larger head and mouth.[1]
When and where
- Found over
- estuary, rivers, brackish water, coastal sea[1]
Sources
These notes are a draft: we gathered them from the sources above and are still checking them. We don't work out best times for this fish yet. The size rules come from the same checked byelaws as every other fish.