The fascinating and slippery, gnarly and voracious… EELS!

 

Eels have always fascinated human beings, possibly because they have the strength to operate on land (although in a limited way) and because they are fish-like, but have few fins. In fact, they seem to resemble powerful and strong snakes.

Did you know that moray eels have two working jaws? First, they have the jaw that almost all sea creatures have. Second, they have the jaw which is called the pharyngeal jaw, an inside jaw that helps the moray eel keep the prey inside his or her mouth so the moray can eat his or her prey. Although ‘his’ and ‘her’ are troublesome terms when it comes to the moray: these eels can also change genders but only from male to female. Moray eels also have a really cool doctor, a sea creature that we love to eat. The sea creature is a… cleaner shrimp. The shrimp will come about once a month and take food that is stuck inside of the moray’s mouth. This helps the sea creature so it can keep on eating food to survive. Does the cleaner shrimp also cure its bad breath? Moray eels also eat things whole, such as white tip sharks, octopuses and squid. Eels can consume a whole animal, about half of its body length, or three feet. The half-body length fish or creature will only last the eel about one whole day.

Giant moray eels are known as monsters in the ocean because these eels are very large. Eels don’t have scales like other sea creatures, but have slimy skin, slimed by mucus, which allows them to slip through coral reefs and shipwrecks. This jelly-like skin helps the eel to slip away from predators like sharks, octopus, giant squid and many others. Giant moray eels often live in the tropics, like the Galapagos Islands and also appear in Asia.

Giant moray eels only come together when they need to lay eggs, or find a mate. Females lay about 10,000 eggs because half of the eggs get eaten. Once the eggs are out, the male fertilizes the eggs. This is called spawning. The eggs get eaten because the male and the female don’t protect them; the males and females just let the eggs flow into the ocean and try to survive. However, the moray eels don’t operate on season to lay eggs – the female just finds a mate when she feels that she is getting eggs. Eels lay eggs better if the temperature of the ocean is warm. The moray eel is ready to mate around age 3-4.

 

Moray eels have an excellent sense of smell but really poor eyesight – that’s why moray eels sometimes attack divers. There is a 70% chance that the moray eel will not bite or cause you any problems. Once there was a scuba diver who was the captain of a scuba diving team who wanted to learn about those interesting moray eels.

The scuba diver wanted to do some research on the giant slender moray eel, the most dangerous one of all, which can grow up to 14 feet long. So the scuba diver’s plan was risky. His risky plan was to distract the eel with sausages. The scuba diver was going to try to distract the dangerous sea creature. The crew and the scuba diver were really excited to examine the slimy giant slender moray eel.

 

The scuba diver swam and swam for about an hour. The sausages were in his hand, loosely. The people onboard the boat were told by the sensor that the moray eel was far from the scuba diver, which meant that the giant slender moray eel was probably in the opposite direction of the scuba diver until he sensed those delicious sausages for food. Suddenly, the moray eel smelled the sausages and swam closer and closer till she got to the scuba diver. The giant slender moray eel probably came a long way, but she probably thought it wasn’t long at all. The giant slender moray eel approached and suddenly, crept up behind the scuba diver, then went for the sausages. The giant slender moray eel’s eyesight was so awful that the moray eel not only got the sausages but she also ate the scuba diver’s arm! When the boat sensed this, the other sailors on the boat dove down and the captain scuba diver was saved by them. Now that tells us how awesome the moray eel’s sense is and how awful his eyesight is. So be careful in the ocean!

Pacific Islanders, among other tribal people, have written many different stories about the moray eel. Here’s one from the South Pacific:

Once upon a time there was a girl named Sina. She lived on an island far, far away called Samoa. People on the Pacific Ocean would always talk about her. Then one day, a king named King Tuifiti of Fiji heard of Sina and wanted to meet her. The King knew that it would take a long time to get to Sina. King Tuifiti decided to turn himself into an eel so it wouldn’t take that long to get to Sina. King Tuifiti swam as fast as he could. When he got to the other side he was exhausted. When Sina saw the eel she decided to have the eel as her pet because Sina really adored it. First Sina put the eel in a bowl. When the bowl was too small she didn’t know what to do she began really frightened and scared? Sina was so scared she ran away to the nearby village and the eel followed her. The eel told Sina why he was doing this but soon the eel began to die. Sina buried him under the tree and that was the first coconut tree!

Fishing for eels is widespread, because people in Asia love to eat eel. People believe that eels are healthy for the body, providing vitamins A, B1, B2, D and E, which help you in the summer. The B1 vitamin helps you to sweat easier. The Unagi (Jaapanese for freshwater eel) also gives you high quality protein. Some people don’t know which types are non-poisonous and think to themselves, “The biggest eels must be the tastiest, and that happens to be the giant slender!” They say to themselves: “Oh that the eel is ginormous, let me get that eel! It must have a lot of meat.” The person might think, “Should I eat it… or sell the eel?” However, the moray eel eats a really poisonous fish called the lionfish, as well as the puffer fish, the deadliest fish in the deep ocean.

Just to be safe, I will tell you the eels you can eat. The types of eels that people often eat are: jellied eels, unagi, kabayaki, unadon, smoked eel, elvers, and long fin eels. Know which eel to eat and not to eat but be careful what you eat, no matter where you are! Now you can eat the delicious eels!

There are three main ways to catch eels. Indigenous tribes have always been hunting and catching eels. You can use a fishing rod with live bait on the hook, and when you see the eel, drop the hook quietly, for one foot. The eel will come close and then bite. Unlike with fish, you have to wait until the eel swallows the hook because those freshwater eels are really good fighters. The freshwater eel can take one whole hour to reel out.The second way is spearing an eel. I would prefer fishing to spearing, because in spearing an eel, you have to go into the water to catch it. Spearing the eel is really hard because when the eel sees the water moves. The last way to catch an eel is the most relaxing: the same way you catch crabs! Many people just like to throw a basket to the bottom of the ocean. Then the freshwater eel just swims in, smelling the bait, and then it usually can’t find its way out of the cage.

Now you know some interesting features of moray eels and catching and eating them, as well as myths and legends about eels. I hope you enjoyed learning about these slimy creatures. Remember be careful in the ocean and… watch out for sea monsters in the water!