How to identify european eel
Anguilla anguilla · Anguillidae
The characters that identify european eel, ranked by how far each one can be trusted on its own.
Safety
Fish welfare — Can cause serious injury or death
The species is Critically Endangered and every individual matters more than it would for a common fish. Handling removes the protective mucus layer, and eels are frequently deep-hooked because they take baits slowly and completely.
What reduces it: Return incidentally caught eels immediately with wet hands and minimal contact. Where an eel is deep-hooked, cut the line rather than attempting removal. Do not target them where that is not permitted, and move if you are catching them repeatedly.
Biosecurity and disease transfer — Can cause injury needing treatment
Eel populations have been affected by an introduced parasitic nematode spread through movements of live eels for aquaculture and stocking.
What reduces it: Never move live fish or water between waters. Clean, drain, dry and check equipment between waters.
Look at this first
Look at where the dorsal fin starts. In a European eel it begins well back down the body, a long way behind the pectoral fin. In a conger — the fish it is confused with in brackish and coastal water — the dorsal starts almost above the pectoral.
Diagnostic — settles it on its own
Each of these settles the identification on its own. If one is clear, you have your answer.
The dorsal fin starts far behind the pectoral
Run your eye back from the pectoral fin. In Anguilla anguilla there is a long stretch of bare back before the dorsal fin begins — typically well beyond the vent's midpoint back from the head. In a conger the dorsal begins close above or just behind the pectoral. This is the character that separates the two families and it does not vary.
The lower jaw projects beyond the upper
The bottom jaw sticks out slightly in front of the top one, giving a faintly undershot look. A conger's upper jaw is the longer. It is a small difference and it is structural, and on a fish in hand it settles the question with the fin position.
Supporting — use with other characters
Real characters that are not conclusive by themselves. Use two or three together.
Skin that feels smooth and looks scaleless
European eels do have scales, but they are tiny, embedded and set in a mosaic under a thick mucous layer, so the fish appears and feels scaleless. That places it among the true eels and rules out anything superficially eel-shaped with visible scales, such as a young burbot or a loach.
Colour, which changes with life stage rather than with mood
A resident 'yellow' eel is olive-brown above and yellowish below. A maturing 'silver' eel turns dark above with a bright silver flank, and its eyes enlarge markedly as it prepares to leave for the sea. The change is a life stage, not a variation, and knowing which one you are holding says something about what the fish is doing.
What it gets confused with
- Conger eel in estuaries and coastal water. Read the dorsal fin origin: far back for European eel, almost above the pectoral for conger.
- Lamprey, which has no jaws, no paired fins and a row of gill openings behind the eye rather than a single gill cover.
- Very small eels against loaches, though loaches have barbels and separate fins.
Side by side: European eel vs Conger eel.
Where this stops working
The identification is easy and the CONSEQUENCE is not. The European eel is assessed as Critically Endangered, its recruitment collapsed to a small fraction of historical levels, and fishing for it, taking it and moving it are prohibited or tightly restricted across most of Europe under regulations that differ by country and by water. This is a species where knowing what you have caught matters mainly so that you can put it back promptly and, in many places, so that you do not commit an offence. Check the rules for the water before fishing anywhere eels are present.
The full record
This page covers identification only. The European eel record covers behaviour, lifecycle, distribution, handling and the sources behind all of it.
Reviewed 2026-08-15.
More about this fish
Telling it apart is one question. Here are the others.
Similar and related fish
What these connections rest on (1)
Scientific evidence — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Conger eel
A taxonomic and identification comparison naming both binomials.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: That Conger conger is a marine Congridae distinct from the catadromous freshwater Anguilla anguilla.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What these connections rest on (1)
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Ledgering
Established angling practice for this species, recorded as convention. The note states the property of the animal or its water that makes the method the answer.
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Freshwater angling technique and its application to this species.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Angling Times — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary practice for this species in the British and European coarse press.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
What these connections rest on (1)
Scientific evidence — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Estuary
A life-history claim with direct management consequence, held to a scientific standard.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: That Anguilla anguilla occupies fresh, brackish and marine water with a catadromous life history, entering rivers as juveniles and returning to sea to spawn.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: The freshwater phase and migration of Anguilla anguilla in European waters.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where you will find it
- FranceGlass eels arrive on the Atlantic coast and ascend the Loire, Gironde and Adour, which historically supported one of Europe's most significant elver fisheries and is now among the most tightly restricted.
- Lough CorribPresent in the system and carrying the species' critically endangered status, as it does across its European range.
- Lough NeaghThe lough supports one of the largest wild-caught eel fisheries remaining in Europe, on a species whose recruitment has collapsed across the continent.
- Northern IrelandCentral to the Lough Neagh fishery, which is of long standing and international significance, and critically endangered across its range.
- The Bay of BiscayGlass eels arrive on this coast and ascend the Loire, Gironde, Adour and the Cantabrian rivers, which historically supported one of the most significant elver fisheries in Europe and is now among the most tightly restricted.
- The Danube basinPresent in the basin's lower reaches and delta, at the extreme edge of a catadromous range whose reproduction takes place in the Atlantic.
- The Fens and their drainsHistorically enormous here — rents were paid in eels and Ely takes its name from them — and now a critically endangered species whose presence is a conservation fact rather than a fishery.
- The IJsselmeerPresent in a system that was an arm of the sea until 1932, on a species assessed at high extinction risk across its whole range and subject to specific conservation measures.
8 more
- The Netherlands Fishing regions
- The River Spey Fishing regions
- The River Trent Fishing regions
- The River Tweed Fishing regions
- The Severn Estuary Fishing regions
- The Solent and the Hampshire coast Fishing regions
- The Thames Estuary Fishing regions
- The Wadden Sea Fishing regions
What these connections rest on (16)
Scientific evidence — 16 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
France
Occurrence of the species in these waters: a statement about the animal's distribution, not a venue recommendation.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and salinity tolerance recorded for the species, including its occurrence in these waters.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment and range description for the species.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Lough Corrib
A distribution association between an animal and a described water body, which is what the `inhabits` predicate is for — the kind of water rather than a named mark.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and ecology of British and Irish freshwater fishes, including occurrence in the water body concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and life history recorded for the species.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
Lough Neagh
A distributional claim taken from reference works on the fishes of the region rather than from angling report. It states presence and asserts nothing about a fishery.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, life history and depth range recorded for the species concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Biology, distribution and conservation status of British and Irish freshwater and diadromous fishes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat and biology of the fishes of the British Isles and north-west Europe.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Northern Ireland
A distribution claim about the world, so it rests on the reference works rather than on angling report. FHQ-V005 requires it.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association, water-type tolerance and occurrence records for the species, including its presence in the countries concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment and range account for the species, including the countries and systems it occupies and its population trend within them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The Bay of Biscay
Occurrence of the species in this system or along this coast: a statement about the animal's distribution, not a venue recommendation.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution and habitat association of European freshwater fishes, including their occurrence in brackish and coastal waters.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Salinity tolerance and distribution recorded for the species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The Danube basin
A distribution association between an animal and a described water body, which is what the `inhabits` predicate is for — the kind of water rather than a named mark.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution and habitat association of European freshwater fishes, including occurrence in the river system concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution and habitat association recorded for the species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The Fens and their drains
A distributional claim about where a species occurs, which is a claim about the world and rests on the reference literature rather than on angling report.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and ecology of the freshwater fishes of the British Isles.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and life history recorded for the species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The IJsselmeer
A distributional claim taken from reference works and databases on the fishes of the region rather than from angling report. It states presence and asserts nothing about a fishery.
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Global extinction-risk assessment, population trend and identified threats for the species concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and life history recorded for the species concerned.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The Netherlands
That a species occurs in these waters, drawn from distribution science and stock assessment. It is a statement about where the animal lives and is not a statement that anybody will catch one, still less where.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat requirement and life history of European freshwater fishes, including their occurrence across the continental range named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution and habitat association of the freshwater and migratory species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The River Spey
A distributional claim about where a species occurs, which is a claim about the world and rests on the reference literature rather than on angling report.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and ecology of the freshwater fishes of the British Isles.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and life history recorded for the species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The River Trent
A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, and it deliberately asserts nothing about access, permission or catch.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat and conservation status of British freshwater fishes, including the isolated glacial-relict populations of northern England.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Environment Agency fisheries management, byelaws and rod licensing information — Environment Agency (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Fisheries monitoring, water quality and species distribution in English rivers and still waters.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The River Tweed
A distribution association between an animal and a described water body, which is what the `inhabits` predicate is for — the kind of water rather than a named mark.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and ecology of British and Irish freshwater fishes, including occurrence in the water body concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and life history recorded for the species.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
The Severn Estuary
A distribution association between an animal and a described water body, which is what the `inhabits` predicate is for — the kind of water rather than a named mark.
- Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles — HarperCollins (New Naturalist 75), 1992 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and ecology of British and Irish freshwater fishes, including occurrence in the water body concerned.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat association and life history recorded for the species.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
The Solent and the Hampshire coast
A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, and it deliberately asserts nothing about access, permission or catch.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution and habitat association of the marine, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, including which coasts, estuaries and ground types a species occupies.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution, depth range and habitat association for the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The Thames Estuary
A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, and it deliberately asserts nothing about access, permission or catch.
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution and habitat association of the marine, estuarine and freshwater fishes of the British Isles, including which coasts, estuaries and ground types a species occupies.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution, depth range and habitat association for the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
The Wadden Sea
A claim that a place contains the ground, water and seasonal conditions the species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the regional reference literature, and it deliberately asserts nothing about access, permission or catch.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution, depth range and habitat association for the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe — Macmillan, 1969 (Reference work)Relied on for: Distribution and habitat association of the fishes of north-west Europe, including the continental coasts and seas named.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly