Species

European Eel

Citation Formats

General Reference

Nature Atlas. "European Eel." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-nature.interactiveatlas.org/species/european-eel.

APA Style

Nature Atlas. (n.d.). European Eel. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-nature.interactiveatlas.org/species/european-eel

BibTeX

@misc{natureatlas-european-eel,
  author = {Nature Atlas},
  title = {European Eel},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-nature.interactiveatlas.org/species/european-eel},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A catadromous fish that spends most of its life in European fresh water and coastal seas, then migrates thousands of kilometres to spawn in the Sargasso Sea, after which the larvae drift back across the Atlantic on ocean currents to reach European coasts and rivers.

Facts

Scientific Name

Anguilla anguilla 1

Conservation Status

Critically Endangered 1

Numbers of eels reaching Europe are thought to have declined by around 90 percent, possibly as much as 98 percent, since the 1970s.

Cross-Tradition Connections