The Eel

Hello! I’ve decided to write a poem for World Eel Day. Did you know, that the Sargasso Sea, (where European Eels spawn) includes some of the Bermuda Triangle? Wouldn’t it be amazing if (a VERY big if) we find the exact place of the European Eels spawning ground, and it was covered in wrecks of ships and planes!?

Eel, Eel, gleams like steel,
Shines like the sun, it can't be real.

I cannot even start
To comprehend how smart
These creatures are.

How many tricks
This catadromous fish
Can use.

Although it takes ages
It has many stages
In its life.

It starts as an egg
Really quite small
Surrounded by all
The Sargasso.

When the parents are dead
It hatches (into a larva, it must be said)
And drifts towards the coast.

For a year or so
They all just go
Towards a river.

Then they become
A hard-to-spot one
Glass eels.

When they have found
A good-size river
They make no sound
And swim faster.

They turn into Elvers
Like miniature elders
And go ahead.

They swim up the river
And don't even quiver
When their siblings get eaten.

Every fish
Watches this dish.

When they find
A suitable hide
They become Yellow eels.

12 years for boys
And 20 for girls
Maximum.

Don't make a meal of the Yellow eel
As they're a massive deal.

(They grow bigger
So they need more and more
Of a fat store.)

When they have it
They become
Bit by bit
A Silver eel.

Their eyes grow bigger
To help them see
In the sea.

Then it's one year back
to spawn
at the crack
of dawn.

Then they DIE!