Cutthroat Eel

Sandy bottom is home to longfish hake and cutthroat eel (above).

Also characterized by its elongate wormlike bodies. Cutthroat eels range from 23 to 160 cm  in length. They are bottom-dwelling fish, found in deep waters down to about 3,700 m.

The term “eel” is also used for some other eel-shaped fish, such as electric eels (genus Electrophorus), spiny eels (family Mastacembelidae), and deep-sea spiny eels (family Notacanthidae). These other clades, however, evolved their eel-like shapes independently from the true eels.

An eel is any ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes , which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage, and most are predators. The term “eel” originally referred to the European eel, and the name of the order means “European eel-shaped.”

Estuary to the Abyss: Exploring Along the Latitude 31-30 Transect: August 20 – September 1, 2004