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Molly Cule
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163274. Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:37 am |
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The only record of an eel being found in the Atlantic dates from 1898 when one was found in the stomach of a sperm whale caught near the Azores by the Prince of Monaco.
Fully mature eels are rarely caught at sea; they do not feed so can't be caught on bait and they slip easily through trawler nets. |
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Molly Cule
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163276. Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:40 am |
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Fertilised eel eggs float. They are each held in a minute drop of oil which enables them to rise to the surface. A day or so later, even hours later, they hatch into tiny slips of tissue no longer than the thickness of a fingernail. The tiny eels are see through, you can see very organ and muscle segment and the colour of their blood. Its head is the size of a pinprick and has round black eyes and a pair of jaws. |
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Molly Cule
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163278. Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:46 am |
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The bigger eels grow the more fish they eat, they like perch, rudd, char and other eels.
So, eels are cannibals.
This was shown in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris in the late 1930's. Two biologists put a thousand 8cm long elvers (immature eels) in a tank of water with no shelter. They were fed daily. Even so a year later there were only 71 eels left, now about 25cms long. Two months later there were 12 eels, a month later only one. It was a female and she had eaten one and killed the other of her two final rivals. She weighed 55 grammes at this point and was 32cm long. She was kept and kept growing, she was neglected during the Nazi occupation and died. |
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Flash
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163291. Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:33 am |
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Serve her right.
Good stuff, Moll. |
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163341. Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:39 am |
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Gray
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163349. Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:50 am |
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Wiki says it's more closely related to the carp. |
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163352. Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:55 am |
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MatC
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165987. Sat Apr 14, 2007 6:44 am |
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Quote: | Eel feel helps wave power go with the flow
Leena Patel and her colleagues at the University of Edinburgh in the UK are using a genetic algorithm computer program, which mimics the way natural selection breeds fitter creatures, to improve the way their virtual lamprey swims in different sea conditions. They want to use these swimming motions to boost the efficiency of a novel type of wave-power device - a long, thin, eel-like machine called the Pelamis. |
S: NewScientist |
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eggshaped
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