Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish

James Prosek

Sept 2010 · Harper Collins

About this eBook

“Eels [is] more than a fish book. It is an impassioned defense of nature itself. . . . [Prosek] passes on the truth that the often disdained eel, like all migratory fish, is vital and mysterious and worthy of our full effort to bring it back.”   — New York Times Book Review

“A wonderful account of far-flung travels in pursuit of the secrets of the earth’s most mysterious fish. . . . Fascinating and beautifully rendered.” — Peter Matthiessen

Famous for his deeply informed, compulsively readable books on trout, James Prosek (whom the New York Times has called “the Audubon of the fishing world”) takes on nature’s quirkiest and most enigmatic fish: the eel. Fans of Mark Kurlansky’s Cod and The Big Oyster or Trevor Corson’s The Secret Life of Lobsters will love Prosek’s probing exploration of the hidden deep-water dwellers. With characteristically captivating prose and lavish illustrations, Prosek demystifies the eel’s unique biology and bizarre mating routines, and illuminates the animal’s varied roles in the folklore, cuisine, and commerce of a variety of cultures.

Ratings and reviews

Prosek became more interested in the cultural associations of eels than the facts of eel life as he wrote the book. The mystery of the location of their spawning grounds lost its importance.The book focuses instead on the eel myths of the Maori and Micronesians, on the timelessness of the eels return to the sea to mate, after decades living in freshwater rivers and lakes. The book is less about the fish, more about the people whose lives are bound up with them.

Absolutely fascinating. This gave me so much insight and appreciation for the eels that I ate as a kid and the eel racks that I recall in the Delaware river while I was growing up. I had no idea that the eels caught in a little brook had come so far.

About the author

James Prosek is a writer and artist. Dubbed “the Audubon of the fishing world” by the New York Times, his books include Trout, The Complete Angler, and Fly-Fishing the 41st. He lives in Easton, Connecticut.