Eel
Anguilla anguilla
Length up to 1m
Snake-like body ideally suited to life spent among silt and debris at bottom of ponds, lakes and canals. Complicated life history. Spawns in Sargasso Sea and young larvae drift across the Atlantic in the Gulf Stream for three years or so. On reaching our shores, so-called elvers migrate up rivers; after several years, become familiar, yellow-bodied eels. Mature, silvery eels migrate to the sea and are sometimes found on estuaries.