tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16505569.post636305775131968135..comments2024-01-05T05:02:20.353+00:00Comments on CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: OLL LEWIS: I Told You I Was ‘Eel’Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16505569.post-61327264375050904992009-08-04T13:23:09.487+01:002009-08-04T13:23:09.487+01:00This has been my favorite hypothesis from the CFZ....This has been my favorite hypothesis from the CFZ.<br /><br />Have you considered sterilizing these eels, just so you could see if they really do get that much larger?<br /><br />My take on the big eels is that European eels historically were larger than they are now. They are heavily over-fished species. And one thing we know about over-fished species is that the actual size of the fish seems to be greatly reduced over time. Maybe there were historically unexploited populations of eel in the remote lakes, which were then spotted by tourists and other people who weren't sure what they were. Because the average person had only seen the eels from the exploited populations, they were unaccustomed to the larger size of these eels in the lakes and thought they were monsters. <br /><br />The reason why they get smaller because of overfishing is that we tend to take the large ones, and there is selective pressure on the populations to become small. If you're small, you live to breed.<br /><br />I also wonder if maybe Conger eels are coming into some of these areas that are close to the sea. Conger eels are bigger than the Anguilla species.<br /><br />European eels are considered critically endangered by the IUCN. Norway has banned fishing them. Pollution with PCB's is now thought to be a major cause of their decline. And an eel with that sort of toxicity could never reach its full potential as an organism-- including reaching its full size potential.<br /><br />Keep exploring this hypothesis. It's got me quite intrigued.Retrievermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15780519136583108632noreply@blogger.com