Slippery When Wet 滑溜溜的鰻魚

Many people enjoy eating fried eel, but few stop to think about the life of this unique fish. There are hundreds of different species of eel, all of which can be roughly divided into two groups according to their habitat: saltwater and freshwater.

Despite living in different waters, all eels spawn in the sea. This means some freshwater eels migrate great distances to reach their saltwater destinations. Biologists have discovered freshwater eels from North American and European rivers and lakes gathering as far as the middle of the Atlantic ocean during late summer. Once the eels arrive, the females lay their eggs and the males fertilize them. The adult eels then die there.

The next spring a new generation is born in the ocean. Those European and North American young then return to their respective coasts to begin the unusual life cycle of the eel anew.

很多人喜歡吃炸鰻魚，但很少有人會停下來想想這種獨特魚類的生活習性。鰻魚的種類有數百種，根據其棲息地大致可以分為兩類：咸水鰻魚和淡水鰻魚。

盡管生活在不同的水域，所有的鰻魚都在海里產卵。這說明一些淡水鰻魚必須長途遷徙到它們的咸水產卵地。生物學家已經發現，夏末時節，北美及歐洲河流湖泊里的淡水鰻魚會遠遷到大西洋中部聚集。一旦這些鰻魚抵達了目的地，雌鰻魚就會產卵而雄鰻魚就會給它們授精。之后成年鰻魚就死在那兒。

第二年春天，新一代鰻魚在海中誕生。那些歐洲和北美洲的幼魚就會回到它們各自的海岸，重新開始鰻魚獨特的生命周期。