
Where Do Eels Come From? - Thevet
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/25/where-do-eels-come-from
======
csours
I wonder how many things I think I know the answer to but I really don't. I
find the
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions)
very interesting.

~~~
divbzero
Thank you!

Corrected a few of my own misconceptions:

\- Microwave ovens do _not_ heat food due to resonance with water molecules.

\- Spacecraft reentering the atmosphere are _not_ heated due to friction.

\- Worldwide poverty has _not_ been increasing.

~~~
joe_the_user
_Worldwide poverty has not been increasing._

The rest of those statements are pretty clearly facts. A statement like this
is very a matter of statistical interpretation. A lot of the claims of
decreasing world poverty stem from a decrease in those said to make "pennies
per day" however, such a group could also be describes as "those outside the
money economy" and thus an increase in assigned earnings to this group
represent decreased poverty is debatable.

See: Bill Gates says poverty is decreasing. He couldn’t be more wrong

[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-g...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-
gates-davos-global-poverty-infographic-neoliberal)

~~~
Supermancho
Indeed. Of course more people are better off historically than cavemen, but
that's not an indication that poverty is decreasing.

~~~
luckylion
You'll need to define what you mean by poverty. Is someone poor that cannot
feed and clothe themselves? Are they poor if they are not certain that they
will be able to feed and clothe themselves for the foreseeable future? Are
they poor if they have less than x% of the average personal wealth of those
within some distance?

And I believe almost all people are better off than cavemen, not just more.

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alleycat5000
There is a good RadioLab on this!

[https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/silky...](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/silky-
love)

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zetazzed
If this article develops your interest in eels, I highly recommend following
"Surprised Eel Historian"
([https://twitter.com/greenleejw](https://twitter.com/greenleejw)) on Twitter
for approximately daily facts about the role of eels in medieval English
society. (Yes, there are really hundreds of new English eel history facts per
day.)

------
irrational
Is it just me, or does this article not answer where eels come from? They are
from the Sargasso Sea! Oh wait, except we actually went there and checked
and... nope. No eels.

Is the article correct that we still have never seen eels mate and have no
idea how/where they do it?

~~~
ncmncm
Exactly.

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grawprog
Cool, i never realized eels had such a complex life cycle and i didn't know we
took so long to learn and understand it.

It's interesting when you compare it to species such as salmon where their
life cycle has been understood fairly in depth, independently on two
continents for well over 1000 years. Yet salmon also have a fairly complicated
that varies from species to species.

~~~
Tiktaalik
I think we understand the basic framework of the Salmon lifecycle but we don't
really understand all the details. Certainly not enough to be able to estimate
salmon run numbers.

Like unexpected weather, scientists are regularly stumped by extraordinary
unexpected amounts of salmon returning to streams both wildly over and under
expectations.

~~~
grawprog
True, but by comparison where the separate life stages of eels were believed
to be entirely different species up until the 1800', salmon were relatively
well known both in North America and Japan.

It was understood what Fry and smolts were. The different species and their
specific breeding cycles, including which rivers would contain which species
in a given season were known and there was generally a large 'industry' and
culture built around them on both sides of the Pacific.

Likewise, from what that article says, eels were a heavy part of many
cultures, yet the beliefs around them were fairly ignorant, for lack of a
better word, by comparison.

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dejongh
It was a pleasure to read this article. Lots of fun facts and well written.
Thanks.

------
spsrich2
I have often eaten eels but I have never considered how they work

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protoweek
This was a very strange, disconnected and fragmented article by the New Yorker

Why dint they break down the supply chain linearly?

~~~
ncmncm
It is sad, tragic even, that the great writing on natural history is closed
you by your own impatience.

This article is not the best of its kind, but it is very, very good. Writing
that excels it would frustrate you more, in proportion to its quality. The
frustration you feel reading it is a pale echo of that experienced by the
myriad scientists and amateurs who puzzled in and out of decades over these
questions, originally obscure but enlarged by their obdurity to have become
symbolic of questions of our own existence.

~~~
hpliferaft
Oh please. OP offered a position and asked a simple, direct question. That is
customary here.

Your bloviation about great writing offers nothing except a great example of a
style you won't find in the New Yorker.

~~~
AtlasBarfed
It's a complaint about a long form article.

From the New Yorker!

If you don't like long form articles and you see it is the New Yorker, then
don't read it.

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mhb
I guess that the New Yorker doesn't extend the same disapprobation to ending a
headline with a preposition as it does to writing "naïve" or "coöperate"
without diaeresis.

~~~
teddyh
> _disapprobation to ending a headline with a preposition_

There is no such rule.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding)

~~~
dang
Churchill didn't make the famous joke about it either.

[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/04/churchill-
prepositi...](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/04/churchill-preposition/)

------
antsar
Interesting topic but this article was tedious.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_life_history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_life_history)

TLDR: They spawn in a few places out in the ocean, then migrate toward coasts
as they mature.

European & American eel: North of the Antilles, Haiti, and Puerto Rico

Japanese eel: Near the Mariana Islands

South African eel: North of Madagascar

~~~
billfruit
I think this type of descent into "storytelling" is one of the anti-patterns
of modern journalistic writing. Why isn't there a major push back against
these anti-patterns among journalists, I often wonder.

~~~
yborg
I think this kind of complaint about the elegant use of language in writing is
one of the anti-patterns of a modern society trained to communicate in 140
character ALL CAPS shouting. One of the things that I always find fascinating
is the level of expression you find in everyday letters by everyday people
written in the 19th century. It seems very sad that despite the fact that long
form writing is much easier now than when it had to be hand-written in ink
people no longer have the patience for writing or reading it.

~~~
billfruit
I am not complaining about elegant use of language; Use of rich language to
express complex and nuanced concepts is a good thing. But presenting the whole
matter as "Story" is what I find uninteresting, and oftentimes misleading.
Give us the facts, the theories and explanations; but telling it as "Story"
does really a disservice to readers, and even seems against the spirit of
journalism.

~~~
danharaj
What exactly is the spirit of journalism and how did you come to know it
through your study of the history of journalism?

~~~
TeMPOraL
Well, the gold standard is what journalists call "inverted pyramid". You start
with a TL;DR, and then expand recursively. This way, the reader can get more
and more detailed picture as they read on, and stop at the moment they feel
they've satisfied their needs.

This is how you present information if you care about your reader. The reason
it's not done almost anywhere is because maximizing profit is done by
minimizing utility, so that you can drag the curious reader through as many
ads as they have patience to bear.

~~~
achn
This is the New Yorker! It is not written as a Wikipedia article or even a
science article. The New Yorker has a long history with its own voice. You are
not necessarily wrong in a generalized statement, but this is not the piece to
raise this opinion against.

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ngcc_hk
Should say is eel extinct soon ? More click bite and is actually the reason
why such an urgent search.

