Status of the European eel stock and fisheries

The European eel, Anguilla anguilla (L.), is the archetypical eel species, and was the monotypic species for the genus (genus described based on a single species). Much of the scientific knowledge about eels has been acquired first for the European eel, starting with Aristotle executing the earliest scientific experiment on fish. Aristotle describes that an isolated pool was scraped out, to find new eels, after the rain had replenished the pool. In his view, this proved spontaneous generation of eels from the mud. The reproductive biology of eels has later been resolved, first for the European eel (Schmidt 1922) and in many aspects of research on eels, the views initiated by Johannes Schmidt have grown to almost mythical proportions. Clearly, the European eel is in a prominent position in the eel world.