Local Eel fisherman & an assortment of traps

 

Slimy Eel

Eel trap

Early morning eel fishermen

The boys unwinding their traps

En trap ment

 Eel trap

Eels are elongated fish, ranging in length from 5 cm  in the one-jawed eel  to 4 m  in the slender giant moray.
 

Adults range in weight from 30 grams  to well over 25 kilogram. They possess no pelvic fins, and many species also lack pectoral fins.

The dorsal and anal fins are fused with the caudal or tail fin, forming a single ribbon running along much of the length of the animal.
 

Only members of the Anguilla family regularly inhabit fresh water, but they too return to the sea to breed.

Sometimes they are seen living together in holes, or "eel pits".

Some species of eels also live in deeper water on the continental shelves and over the slopes deep as 4,000meters.

The eel has an elongated snake-like body, tapering almost to a point at the tail. Although the eel is very slimy and appears to be scaleless, scales are deeply embedded in some parts of the skin. There is a pair of pectoral fins just behind the small head, and there is a small gill opening just in front of each fin.

The back fin and the anal fin are very long and merge with the tail fin to form a continuous soft-rayed fin fringe. The eel in fresh water varies in colour from dark brown or olive green to black on the back, and yellowish white to golden yellow on the belly.

The yellow gradually changes to silvery white as the eel reaches maturity and prepares to migrate to the sea.

 Eels are also sometimes described as broadnosed or sharpnosed; the broadnosed eel is one that has excessively developed jaw muscles as a result of voracious feeding, and is almost always a female.

One of our finds along the ocean shoreline.

 

 Most eels live in the shallow waters of the ocean or rivers and burrow into sand, mud, or amongst rocks. A majority of eel species are nocturnal, and thus are rarely seen.

Althea and Amelia with the small Eel.

 

 

All in a days work...