European eel

fish

Also known as: Anguilla anguilla, European freshwater eel

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Last updated

June 26, 2026

Quick Summary

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a type of fish known for its slender, elongated, and usually scaleless body with fins continuous around the tail. Eels are found in all seas and freshwater environments. European eels are catadromous, meaning they spend most of their lives in freshwater but migrate to the sea to breed.12

These eels spawn in the warm waters of the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Their transparent young, called leptocephali, drift on currents to the continental shelves. After transforming into elvers and then glass eels, they swim upstream into freshwater. They grow into yellow eels and live for 10 to 15 years before becoming silver eels and returning to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die.2

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eel
Natural history
…about 10 years in the European freshwater eel (A. anguilla) but possibly much earlier in tropical marine species. The process of growth and maturation has been most closely studied in the European freshwater eel. In this species, both sexes pass through successive phases of neutrality, precocious feminization, and juvenile hermaphroditism…
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…about 10 years in the European freshwater eel (A. anguilla) but possibly much earlier in tropical marine species. The process of growth and maturation has been most closely studied in the European freshwater eel. In this species, both sexes pass through successive phases of neutrality, precocious feminization, and juvenile hermaphroditism…
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marine ecosystem
Migrations of marine organisms
Freshwater eels such as the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) undertake great migrations from fresh water to spawn in the marine waters of the Sargasso Sea (catadromous migrations), where they die. Eel larvae, called leptocephalus larvae, drift back to Europe in the Gulf Stream.
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Freshwater eels such as the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) undertake great migrations from fresh water to spawn in the marine waters of the Sargasso Sea (catadromous migrations), where they die. Eel larvae, called leptocephalus larvae, drift back to Europe in the Gulf Stream.
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