After a period of time feeding in the marine environment, the silver eel will begin the long journey back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and produce eggs which will allow the cycle to be repeated. They will then leave freshwater rivers and head back to the sea, slithering over land to cross barriers (due to their rigid gill structure eels can survive much longer out of water than fish). Eels will develop a pale underside and silver flanks and their eyes will grow larger as they become sexually mature silver eels. Following this they become elvers (baby eels) and then, once they are established in their freshwater environment they change colour and become yellow eels and may remain in this form, and in freshwater river systems, for many years.Įventually, a final change will occur.

They then enter rivers around Europe, changing into an almost transparent glass eel form at this stage of their life.

The newly hatched eels begin to swim towards Europe on a journey that can take over one year. Silver eel eggs hatch in the Sargasso Sea, an area of the North Atlantic to the east of the Caribbean and Florida.

Up until the 1970s scientists believed that glass eels, elvers, yellow eels and silver eels were all distinct species, and not simply the silver eel at different stages of its life, and even today many aspects of this species life cycle and migration patterns are not fully understood. The silver eel ( Anguilla Anguilla, also known as the European eel) is one of the most mysterious creatures on planet earth.

Fishing planet unique european eel