The Book of Eels: Their Lives, Secrets and Myths

by Tom Fort

Tema silmad on nagu mustad täpid mõlemal pool teravat nina. Ent neid tal tarvis ei lähe. Kummagi silma kohal on ovaalne andurelund, mis teda ta teel juhib. Ees on lai õhuke suu, mis avaneb ja sulgub loendamatute toitorganismide järel, kes selles pimedas maailmas elavad oma märkamatut elu. Enamik on tillukesed ja angerjal kulub terve öö, et neist kõhtu täis saada, enne kui ta päikesetõusul oma redupaika naaseb. Kuid mõnikord napsab ta kinni terve väikese kala, millest jätkub paariks-kolmeks päevaks.
Hoopis harvem aga satub talle ette kala, kes on liiga suur, et korraga alla neelata. Siis lööb angerjas oma väikesed teravad hambad kala ihusse ning keerutab end ringi, kuni suutäie kätte saab. See olend armastab salapaiku ja tema tegemised on varjatud. Ta peidab end mudas, kivide ja veetaimede all, puujuurte vahel, vesirotikäikudes, lüüsiväravate ja vanade sildade pragudes. Päevavalgel võib teda tulutult otsida, kui just vesi ei ole ebaharilikult selge: sel juhul võib märgata varjust välja ulatuvat nina ja taimepuhma all «liputavat» saba. Ent võib olla kindel, et ta on kusagil seal all, kas selles või teises järves, igas suures või väikeses jões, igas ojas, tiigis, kanalis, kraavis, umbjärves - igast jõesuudmest ülesvoolu kõige kaugema nirekeseni.
Angerjas peab jahti öösiti ja ka rändab öösiti. Need ebatavalised teekonnad tema elu esimeses ja viimases järgus toimuvad inimsilmale nähtamatult. Ja vahepeal, kui ta ei ole meist kunagi kaugemal kui lähimas veekogus, hoidub ta omasuguste seltsi. Mõttes võib teda näha kõikjal Islandist Skandinaaviani ning üle Baltimaade, Lääne-Euroopa ja Aafrika põhjaranniku kuni Suessi kanalini, teisel pool Atlandit aga Gröönimaast ja Labradorist kuni Mehhiko ja Venezuela laheni.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Science, Biology, Natural History, Audiobook, History

370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2002

About the author

Tom Fort was education at Eton and Balliol Collge, Oxford. On leaving Oxford he went to work as a reporter at the Slough Observer and the Slough Evening Mail before joining the BBC in 1978 where he worked in the BBC Radio newsroom in London for 22 years.

He took early retirement in 2000, just before the publication of his social history of lawns and lawn-mowing, The Grass is Greener.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a particularly well balanced book.
The text starts with a laborious journey into where the author has fished and how some people like to eat their eels... Ugg... It was only at about chapter 5 (or was that 4? It's all a haze) that I perked up and became interested. The story about the how, who, when, and where the spawning ground for eels was discovered and the rivalry therein was well put forward and enjoyable. The rest of the book was forgettable, excluding a sprinkling of interesting titbits, and seemed to be an excuse for an avid fisherman to go an a jolly and meet others of his ilk.
I was disappointed at the heavy focus on the fishing community and only passing mention of any conservation effort and current research. Additionally a number of remarks were rather off base. Hoping that the Thames salmon doesn't make a comeback due to the increased red tape that would then come with fishing in associated waters, saying that if x number of elvers are transported to mature in a body of water then a similar number should reach adulthood (just no) and referring to research, research papers and the seminars and conventions yielding but "guesswork". The last one really gets me. The author is happy to utilize such resources for the purpose of his book and to give form to arguments and yet in one foul swoop implies that research efforts and peer reviewed papers are akin to a few college graduates chin-wagging over a pint at the pub. Whatever dude. Whatever.

[Darragh Solan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have always found eels to be an interesting creature, one which a very interesting book could well be written, but this is not it. The writer is not only the worst kind of bore, one who seems to think the topic is of interest to those only with a subscription to 'Angler's World',but I also found myself searching his name online regarding his obvious political affiliations.
I am usually happy to read authors of all political persuasions, I just can't help but f-eel that I shouldn't know the politics of a man writing about a fish.

[Evie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A litany of things wrong with this book: the climate change denialism, the anti-conservation, the opposition to even basic tenets of science, the racism, the casual misogyny, the Old Etonian style homophobia, the bizarre attitude towards Native Americans, and the fact that I didn't even learn that much about eels :(

[Katie Gibbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eels are extremely interesting, unfortunately this book is only moderately interesting

[Tweedledum · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating journey through the mysteries of the eel and the complexities of fishing for it throughout history. In common with all too many species the European eel is now on the red list,something that happened since the publication of this book. There is so much that man could and should do to reverse this and it is encouraging to see some glimmers of positive steps being taken. It woukd be good if the author were able to update the book to reflect the current situation. The book was published in 2001.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began this book long ago and then went back to it. How charming and addictive it is. How could writing about eels be fascinating? They are at once remarkable and slimy and difficult creatures. However fishermen and their families through the ages have been sustained by them and made fortunes. We have history, great characters and the amazing life cycle of this creature. Tom Fort loves fishing and his devotion to the eel especially shines forth. However, it is with sadness we contemplate the future of this fish as we continue to despoil our world.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

eelly good

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you never knew you needed to know about eels. A fascinating look at a fish species, the people who make a living from them and some of the strange ideas surrounding them. A great read.

[Sarah Ensor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An indepth conservative history of mostly European and classical knowledge about eels by an author deeply interested in fishing, fish species and how they are caught and eaten. It’s based on decades of fishing, reading and talking to eel fishers around half the world and reviewing 18th and 19th century struggles for knowledge about eels and most importantly where they spawn - the Sargasso Sea.

Fort writes well about nature and gives a strong sense of each place and the development of industrial eeling in France, the Netherlands, Japan Briain, Ireland and New York State. There are many fun facts about eel history for instance on the 17th century River Thames in London by Billingsgate fish market where Dutch eelers moored huge boats drilled through with holes to keep their eels alive. They helped fight the fire of London in 1666 and then helped feed and house thousands of homeless people. Fort explains just how weird eels are with their metamorphosing and mucous allowing them out of the water, ability to shin up weirs, ropes and walls and travelling thousands of miles to spawn - a bit like salmon but from much tougher neighbourhoods. There’s interesting material too on the dynamics of change eel fisheries have gone through and the political, productive and economic forces they’re under. Some of the analysis peters out into the problem is “human nature”. Fort is also casually sexist and personal about people in ways that border on racism. He uses latin mottos without translating them, presumably because if the reader doesn’t have a classical education that’s their look out and appears to suggest effects of climate change may just be the effects of cyclical earth systems. But despite all that, it’s an interesting review of eel history and science

[Philipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny how there are two Book of Eels, one by Tom Fort from 2002 and one from Patrick Svensson from 2019, and funny how they're both unique mixes of autobiography, travelogues, history of biology, and sociology.

Eels are weird creatures. They spawn in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and travel to Europe and the US to grow old in freshwater systems - then they return to the Atlantic Ocean to mate and die. We've only known this roughly since the 1920s, as Fort lays out here, but we haven't had direct evidence until 2022, when satellite tagging of eels worked out (see BBC's article), about 20 years after Fort's book.

Fort looks at the eel from a fisherman's perspective, a classic naturalist's perspective: how do people rely on these fish? How are people impacting eels? Who are the last eel fishermen, and how do they live? How is the ongoing disappearance of eels impacting communities? How is the industry around eels structured? How have eel-related tastes of European people changed over time, and how has that impacted the eel? There's so much fascinating stuff in here: it's a shame we are given only one lifetime to learn. I wish I had a similar book on every single species on earth - I know from my work that there are 36,779 species of fish currently described, at least in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes. Just think of all that knowledge, all these endless forms most beautiful!

Now I have to read Svensson's eels and see what he thought, 20 years later.

[Tiina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh mis õnn oleks olnud sündida angerjana! Elada ja surra pimeduses, nautida seda imelist elu, kogeda seda mõõtmatut igatsust, mis selle salapärase kala pärast pikka retke tagasi Sargasso merre viib...

Raamat ise aga oli väsitav ja tüütu lugemine. Esimeses pooles oli liiga palju hala selle üle, kuidas teda kui ajalooliselt üht peamist toiduainet tänapäeval ei väärtustata, teine pool oli huvitavam. Raamatu sulgenud, uurisin kohe netist järgi, kuidas angerjal nüüd, mingi 20 aastat peale selle teose ilmumist läheb. Sain teada kurva fakti: Euroopa angerjas kuulub praegu punasesse raamatusse kui üks kriitiliselt ohustatud liike.

[Blanche]

Well most certainly not my usual sort of book! My Dad gave it to me as a birthday present after we saw a load of small eels at a nature reserve.
I reckon it would suit someone who likes facts and interesting stories about history, cultures and ways of life.
Really I would have given up with it a number of times but the author's clever "talking", story telling and information kept me hooked so I never managed to slither away from it.
It really is all about eels, their lives, fishing for them and changes over time for the eels, our world and us.

[karolina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eels are very interesting, in fact thats why i picked this book up in the first place. I love learning about the strangeness and mysterious nature of their existence… THIS BOOK HOWEVER ? Talk about fisherman syndrome ….. if only it was called The lives of the men who fish for eel .. because thats literally all he talked about and it was fucking boring LOL really disappointed because i came to learn about something else completely and was advertised that way too .. never again, the writing was never engaging either so its a triple dunce

[Dr Susan Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a book to read if you enjoy fishing yarns, or like eating fish - at least of a certain kind. Eels are not everybody's cup of tea but they are found globally in freshwater with their amazing reproductive cycle to various key parts of our oceans. Tom Fort's book may not satisfy the advanced ichthyologist but he writes passionately about his subject and was preductiveabout Thedire effects of Homo sapiens onthe Anguillidae. I enjoyed dipping into this one again and again.

[Neo Caduceus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bizarrely beautiful. Never have I thought that I would be so engrossed by a book about eels. I was proven wrong.
A review on the cover of the copy of the ebook I read described this book as 'deeply peculiar' among other descriptors, and I have to agree. Deeply peculiar, yet singularly fascinating.

[Katie]

A whimsical tale of eel fishing. It took me a while to finish this as it's a lot less about eels and more about fishing, but it was a pleasant and relaxing read. Very gentle.

[Muir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty boring and at the end realised I didn’t know much more to when I started.

[Karen Crouch · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books in the past few years. Fascinating, and very well written.

[Jane]

DNF

[Joao Paulo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs even more Eel Facts and less Eel Fishing with My Daddy.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy is mad and eels are fascinating

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part travel book, part scientific exploration, part cookbook, the author takes you across North America and parts of Europe in search of the elusive, yet ever-present Eel. Hard to put down.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14157816

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, I just didn't click with the style.