Research Catalog

Title

Eel / Richard Schweid.

Author

Schweid, Richard, 1946-

Publication

London : Reaktion Books, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

184 p. : ill. (some col.); 19 cm.

Summary

When pulled from the mud of creeks, ponds, rivers, or the sea, the eel, with its slick, snake-like body, emerges as an extremely mundane and even unappealing fish. But don't let the appearance fool you the eel has been one of the world's favorite foods since ancient Greece, and the eel's life cycle is one of the most remarkable on the planet. During the middle ages, impoverished Londoners survived on eel and the eel later saved the Mayflower pilgrims from starvation on American shores. In Eel, Richard Schweid chronicles the many facets of these slippery creatures from their natural history to their market value and contemporary consumption to their appearance in art and literature and finally to their present threatened status. So far, eels have steadfastly refused to reproduce in captivity, apparently requiring the vastness of the open ocean to successfully mature which has imperiled the species long-term survival. Schweid explains that freshwater eels are born in remote ocean depths and make a journey of thousands of miles to fresh water where they spend most of their lives before making a return journey to the ocean to mate and die.

Series Statement

Animal

Uniform Title

Animal (Reaktion Books)

Subject

• Eels
• Anguillidae
• Eel fisheries
• Cooking (Eels)
• Human-animal relationships
• Fishes in art
• Fishing in art
• Freshwater fishes

Note

• "A portrait of that amazing and slippery freshwater fish found in the rivers of North America and Europe"--Introd.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 172-175) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- The eel question -- Endangered eel -- Classical eel -- Puritans and Victorians -- Sniggling -- Cultured eel, Cultural eel -- Timeline.

ISBN

• 9781861894236
• 1861894236

OCLC

• 320828276
• SCSB-10140460

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library