Learn to Love… Eels!
The first in a new series on the overlooked and underloved animals that deserve our respect — such as the mysterious eel
Apart from their appearance on sushi menus or in the occasional bad parody song (“when the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie, that’s a moray”), most people probably think of eels with a mix of fear and revulsion. But eels are fascinating and complex creatures, and even downright cute once you get to know them a little bit better.
Let’s begin with some basic background information. Not all so-called eels are created equally. The “electric eel,” which is the eel with the best publicists, is not actually an eel at all; it’s an entirely different class of animal and evolved its eel-like shape independently. With the gills of a fish but a body like a snake, true eels are found in both freshwater and saltwater. They’re at once ubiquitous and mysterious: the bisexuals of the underwater animal kingdom, if you will. (To my knowledge, unlike many other animals, eels have not actually displayed bisexual behavior. But their mating habits are shrouded in the unknown, and we can live in hope.) They have been a traditional food source among Native Americans and the Māori people, who have an extensive oral history surrounding humans’ relationship to them.
