In 1947, my paternal family relocated from the war-scarred suburbs of north-west London to the salt-edged sanctuary of Purbeck, in south Dorset. There, my dad spent his formative years embracing the landscape and forging a deep relationship with the sea. He dived, sailed and fished, a teenage immersion that left his bones brined for the rest of his days. It left him plenty of stories too, and some of my favourites, when I was a child, involved conger eels.
How big are conger eels?
The conger eel (Conger conger) is colossal, capable of growing to 3 metres in length and weighing over 100kg, perhaps even more.
What do conger eels look like?
They are long bodied, but solid, with battleship-grey, scaleless sides and white bellies. Large, round eyes sit either side of a head that is dominated by the mouth; a cavernous gape, lined with small, needle-sharp teeth and powerful jaws.
What do conger eels eat?
The conger is an unfussy eater, ambushing fish, cephalopods or crustaceans from the sanctuary of a lair. With larger prey or carrion, the conger may perform a ‘death roll’, clamping down their jaws and spinning their body like a crocodile.
Where can you find conger eels?
Congers love cover and are frequently found around reefs or shipwrecks. They are less common in shallow water, but on rocky coasts they may be found close to the shore. It was off such a mark where my dad once dived and came face to face with an eel that had a head ‘considerably bigger’ than his own. He got out of the water pretty quickly. A little further along the Purbeck coast he caught a conger on a nightline that was longer than he was tall. To take it home, my dad had to hang the conger’s head over his shoulder and walk with its tail dragging along the ground behind him. Once back, he left it in the bath, much to his mother’s subsequent shock, but it subsequently fed a considerable chunk of Swanage.
Are conger eels threatened?
They are a species under threat, and The Marine Conservation Society rate them at 5 (on a scale of 1-5) meaning they are a fish to avoid in terms of sustainability, with ‘very low resilience to fishing’. The main issue is that they are semelparous, meaning they spawn only once in their lifetime.
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How do conger eels reproduce?
Little is known about the reproductive process of the conger eel, but they undergo physical changes as they sexually mature, before migrating to the western Atlantic where to breed and then die. It is likely that congers spawn in a similar area of the Sargasso Sea as the European eel. There, four different currents create a rotating system of currents known as the North Atlantic Gyre, where the larval congers will drift among plankton in the water column, before being carried by the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic.
This means that most congers tend to be found on the western and southern coasts of the British Isles, although, with the Gulf Stream shifting north and weakening as it does, many of the young eels are likely to be carried into the cruel cold of the Arctic. Those that do survive, may find sanctuary around man-made structures such as piers or artificial reefs.
How long do conger eels live for?
A conger lives for between 10 and 20 years, but the larger specimens may be far older, giving a false impression of population. For now, it seems sensible to leave congers undisturbed and uneaten, giving them a chance to spawn and provide eye-bulging stories for parents to inspire their children.
What are the threats to conger eels?
Human activity, through overfishing or habitat damage caused by bottom trawling, is key to their mortality. Stock assessments are difficult to gauge, but falling catch rates point to a significant decline.
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Top image: conger eel in Scottish loch. Credit: Getty
