European Eel

• It migrates thousands of kilometres from Europe's rivers to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die.
• The moment of spawning has never been directly observed in the wild.
• In captivity, unable to migrate, it can live several decades longer than it otherwise would.
• reproducciónIt travels thousands of kilometres to the Sargasso Sea to breed once in its life, and then dies.
• biologíaThe larvae drift thousands of kilometres from the Sargasso Sea to the coasts of Europe on ocean currents before becoming glass eels.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat & environment

Fresh and brackish rivers, lakes and estuaries of Europe and North Africa during its growth phase; it migrates to the Sargasso Sea to breed

Birth weight

A transparent leaf-shaped larva (leptocephalus) after hatching in the Sargasso Sea

Size at birth

A transparent leptocephalus larva, carried to the coasts of Europe by the Gulf Stream

Sexual maturity

Male: 6-12 years | Female: 9-20 years (a highly variable age at maturity)

Gestation / incubation

No gestation as such; development takes place externally at sea after fertilisation (poorly documented in the wild)

Litter / clutch size

2 to 10 million eggs per female (roughly 3 million per kg of body weight)

Lifespan in captivity

Documented record of 85-88 years in an aquarium specimen, which was kept in captivity and so could never migrate and breed

Sources consulted: Animal Diversity Web; USGS Species Profile; Dimensions.com; AnAge (genomics.senescence.info); ScienceDirect Topics; Fishipedia; TSU Invasives; PMC (spontaneously matured eel study)