I read the blog post. Then I thought "surely the eels in my local southern German lakes can't be from the sea". But sure enough, the European eel hatches close to the Bahamas.

I audibly wtf'ed multiple times while going down this rabbit hole. Thanks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_eel

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yndoendo 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

Recommend "The Truth About Animals" by Lucy Code [0]. It has good chapter on eels. They take a left and go to the USA or take a right and go to Europe.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34211802-the-unexpected-...

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jemmyw 6 days ago | parent [-]

What about the ones in New Zealand and Australia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_longfin_eel

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unwind 6 days ago | parent [-]

It's right there in the intro section:

Longfin eels are long-lived, migrating to the Pacific Ocean near Tonga to breed at the end of their lives. They are good climbers as juveniles and so are found in streams and lakes a long way inland.

	▲	mcv 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		How do they know where to go? How can they find Tonga or the Sargasso Sea unerringly in the vastness of the ocean?

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weinzierl 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had the same thought. I always knew they were fish but always assumed they were local fresh water fish. I mean everyone talks about how Salmon does this incredible journey. If there was another species which did something equally incredible I should have heard about it.

Thanks for the link! A rabbit hole indeed.

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kevin_thibedeau 6 days ago | parent [-]

These eels undergo a notable sequence of transformations before their journey back to the sea. It wasn't until the 19th century that science connected the transitions from glass eel (larval form), to elvers, to yellow eel (freshwater adult), to silver eel (ocean spawning) form as members of the same species. Salmon are less mysterious as their spawning could be observed.

	▲	ahoka 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		And Sigmund Freud spent some significant time researching Eel reproduction as it was a hot scientific topic at the time.

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jansan 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Of all the information in the Wikipedia article the fact that eels are fish was about the least interesting and only thing I previously knew.

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j-krieger 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I learnt this for my German fishing license. I was really baffled.

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codr7 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Eels are weird as fk, and much of what they're up to is still a mystery from what I understand.