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Eels

Thats a thing we hae known about just about a hundred years

Which in itself is amazing
 
Really? Does anyone have any idea how they locate it?
Yeah... they find their way over there using eelectricity!
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After reading some online data, it seems that Eels have the ability to detect and orientate their way using the Earth's magnetic field/s to detect North, South, East and West, and duly navigate their way. Some split the 'pack' and swim other routes ~ presumably they are able to pick-up on other magnetic fields within the Earth?
 
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The headline says it all:

Massive Swarm of Eels Is The Most Fish Ever Recorded at The Bottom of The Ocean
Before we start mining for precious metals in the darkness of the deep sea, we might try switching on the light first and observing our surroundings.

In this seemingly isolated abyss, at deeper than 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) below sea level, scientists were able to coax a massive swarm of 115 cutthroat eels (Ilyophis arx) out of the shadows and into the light, and with only a relatively small package of bait.
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-la...ea-fish-was-just-filmed-near-a-mining-hotspot
 
Eels are in the news again, this time in relation to the assassination of Haiti's President, Jovenel Moise.

Investigative journalist for the NY Times, Maria Abi-Habib, wanted to find who killed Haiti's President. Her first big tip was to look into the eel fishing industry. One thing led to another. It turns out that eel fishing is one of the few ways to make a living in Haiti. Unfortunately, it is also used as a money laundering operation by those who run the drug trade. Those are people connected to government officials.

Here's an interview of Maria Abi-Habib where she describes the process of connecting the dots:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/14/...enel-moise-haiti-president-assassination.html
I think it's amazing she's still alive.

Her article in the NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/...l-moise-haiti-president-drug-traffickers.html
"President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti was about to name names.
Before being assassinated in July, he had been working on a list of powerful politicians and businesspeople involved in Haiti’s drug trade, with the intention of handing over the dossier to the American government, according to four senior Haitian advisers and officials tasked with drafting the document."

When Haiti gained Independence from France in 1804, the former slaves thought they were free. In 1824, France billed Haiti for profits lost to former slave owners. This bill cost "the modern equivalent of US$21 billion" and it wasn't paid off until 1947. French banks and American Citibank financed, and of course profited off of, the "debt." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_debt_of_Haiti)

If you want to screw up a country, ensure that it doesn't have the resources to invest in its own development. That'll leave it vulnerable to drug lords and corrupt governments.

Sorry, kind of a long post, and possibly a bit of a tangent—but I'll never think of eels in the same way again. :(
 
When you're swimmin' in the creek
And an eel nips your cheek
That's a moray"
Used to catch morays (muraena helena) by handline when I were a lad in Cyprus, a yard long and speckled like a leopard, they are NOT even tempered creatures and they are well armed...
 
Two pages in and no reference to their well known love of hovercraft?
 

First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea

Every year, eels leave European rivers to travel in an epic migration to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic to breed for a single time, then die.

Although this final destination has long been suspected, until now there has been no direct evidence.

By fitting eels with satellite tags, researchers have tracked the creatures on the final leg of the route. And they say the information will help in the conservation of the critically endangered species.

"This is the first time we've been able to track eels to the Sargasso Sea and we are delighted we have the first direct evidence of adult European eels reaching their spawning area," said Ros Wright of the Environment Agency, who led the research.

"Their journey will reveal information about eel migration that has never been known before.”



Eel specialist at the Environment Agency, Dan Hayter, has been monitoring eels in the River Blackwater in Essex for 20 years and has seen a drastic decline over that time.

"We do catch eels here every single year," he explained. "Compared with the historic numbers, they're very low now, and there's been a 95% decline since the 1980s."

Eels arrive around the European coast as tiny, fragile and transparent glass eels, having drifted across the Atlantic for two or three years from the Sargasso Sea.

They adapt to freshwater and mature in rivers - growing up to 1m long - until they are ready to swim all the way back to reproduce once and die.

Until now, it has been very difficult to study their migration across the ocean; previous studies have tracked adult eels all the way to the Azores, but from there the trail went cold.

The researchers have now tagged adult eels in the Azores, showing they can swim all the way to the Sargasso Sea.

"We knew they could get as far as the Azores, but that final leg was just undiscovered country," said Ros Wright.
Full report on Nature.com
 
‘Mystery’ Eel caught off NSW Australia coast

Jason regularly posts fishing stories with photos of some unusual creatures mixed with more commonly known. And about the latest mystery creature he wrote: "Check out this huge eel caught in Pitwater NSW. I've never seen anything like it. It's not a Pike eel , or a Silver eel. The teeth look like some kind of Morey eel. But the face is very blunt. It was about 9 foot long. Interesting..."

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