Is The Freshwater Eel The Offspring Of A Small Beetle?

For many years naturalists thought so. Or they thought the eels were made in some mysterious way from a batch of fresh dew on a May morning.

Until recently, scientists were puzzled by this eel. They never could find any eggs from which the eels might have been born, nor could they find a mother eel.

It wasn’t until 1906 that a scientist figured out that no matter what little pond or stream eels may be in, when the time comes for them to have babies, they go to the ocean and swim to the Sargasso Sea off the coast of Bermuda.

It is there their eggs are laid. After performing this last task, the eels die, and when the babies emerge from the eggs, they swim all the way back to where their parent came from. Sometimes that journey can takes as long as three years!