The life history of freshwater eel
"The life history of freshwater eel The life history of the freshwater eel starts in the Sargrasso Sea where adults spawn and then die. The tiny larvae, known at this stage as leptocephali, are swept slowly northwards on the Gulf Stream. It then takes them three years to reach the coasts of Europe where they exchange their somewhat fish-like shape for that of a tiny eel. At this stage they are transparent ""glass eels"" or elvers. During the next stage they migrate inland up the rivers. Eels in the freshwater phase lasts for about a year and then gradually over the next six years the adult eels change from yellow to silver. Not until they are about 10 years old do they start the journey back to Sargrasso Sea to spawn. What induces and guides the migration of eels is still something of a mystery. But it is now thought that very few European eels return to the Sargrasso Sea Most of the adults spawning there seem to have made their way do...