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Eel Names and Languages

Names hold relations between people and eels. This note gathers standard English names, older and alternative scientific names, names in languages spoken where anguillid eels live, names for life stages, sizes and runs, etymologies, place names and idioms, as groundwork for multicultural engagement with eels. Vernacular categories seldom align with Linnaean species. Many languages use one word for several species, some name eels by run, size, colour or season, and some group eels with conger eels, lampreys or catfish. Each name carries its source. Doubts for Future Development records what still needs checking.

Standard English Names

  • Tsukamoto, Kuroki and Watanabe proposed 22 standard English names for the 19 recognised anguillid taxa. These comprise 16 species, three of which (A. bengalensis, A. bicolor and A. australis) each hold two subspecies.1
  • Why. Common names had become inconsistent across scientific papers, pictorial books, mass media and online resources. Some species carried several names and some names covered several species. After IUCN assessments, eels became a frequent media topic, and the shortage of temperate eels drove new exploitation of tropical eels that people had previously consumed only locally.1
  • Five rules. (1) Include a locality name from the distribution. (2) Distinguish sympatric species as "longfin" or "shortfin". (3) Choose a name that recalls the scientific name. (4) Value longstanding and widely used names. (5) Prefer the shortest name.1
  • Morphology. The names follow Ege's four groups (1939), defined by skin pattern, the width of the maxillary tooth band and the length of the dorsal fin. "Longfin" means an ano-dorsal length greater than 6% of total length. The authors rejected skin pattern as a naming criterion because it varies between developmental stages and becomes vague in silver eels. They rejected the maxillary band because it sits inside the mouth, which makes it "inconvenient for market use".1
  • Locality. All names except Bicolor eel carry locality information. The distributions of A. interioris and A. luzonensis remain poorly defined.1
  • Subspecies. Subspecies may later disappear from classification or rise to species rank. To reduce confusion from future changes, the authors gave each polytypic species its own name as well as names for its two subspecies.1
  • Standard English names serve science, conservation and trade across borders. Local and Indigenous names carry other relations, including kinship, law, harvest ethics and story. See Research Questions.

How to Read the List

  • Format. Scientific name and authority (standard English name; former English names). Sub-bullets hold older and alternative scientific names, then names in languages spoken where the taxon lives, each labelled with its language.
  • Authorities. Parentheses around an authority mean that the species was first described in another genus, usually Muraena.
  • Subspecies sit under their species with abbreviated trinomials, for example A. b. labiata. Use the species name (for example Bengal eel) when the population is unknown, and the subspecies name when it is known.
  • Sources. Unless marked otherwise, older scientific names come from Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes2 and names in other languages from FishBase.3 FishBase also lists names in languages spoken far from each range, often translations, and generic words for all eels. This list omits the former and moves the latter to Names Across Several Species.

Species and Subspecies

Group 1

  • A. celebesensis Kaup 1857 (Celebes eel; formerly Celebes longfin eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. amboinensis Peters 1866; A. ancestralis Ege 1939.2 Watanabe's 2003 list, whose taxonomy the earlier species list in Eel matched, still treated A. ancestralis as a species.4
    • Names: Malay (Indonesia) menguling; Vietnamese cá chình vây dài.3
  • A. interioris Whitley 1938 (New Guinea eel; formerly highlands long-finned eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: Allen (1991) treated it as a synonym of A. reinhardtii.2
    • Names: none found in languages of New Guinea. FishBase lists only names in languages spoken outside its range.3
  • A. megastoma Kaup 1857 (Polynesian longfin eel; formerly Pacific long-finned eel, Polynesian longfinned eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. aneitensis Günther 1870 (in part); A. otaheitensis Kaup 1859.2
    • Names: iTaukei (Fijian) tautaubale, an eel reputed to crawl on land.5 Fijian bādamu; Tahitian puhi maua, rere 'ie 'ie, tuna; Wallisian tuna mea; Bislama kekar, pankara; French anguille de montagne, anguille rouge.3
  • A. luzonensis Watanabe, Aoyama & Tsukamoto 2009 (Luzon eel; formerly Philippine mottled eel; also Luzon mottled eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. huangi Teng, Lin & Tzeng 2009, published in November 2009, eight months after A. luzonensis.2
    • Names: none found. Tsukamoto and colleagues report the species only from the Philippines and Taiwan.1

Group 2

  • A. bengalensis (Gray 1831) (Bengal eel; formerly Indian mottled eel, mottled eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: originally Muraena bengalensis Gray 1831; McClelland's 1844 A. arracana, A. brevirostris, A. variegata and A. nebulosa; A. elphinstonei Sykes 1839, questionable.2 Watanabe's 2003 list used A. nebulosa, with subspecies nebulosa and labiata.4
    • A. b. bengalensis (Indian Bengal eel; formerly Indian mottled eel)1
      • Names given at species level that fit this subspecies' South and Southeast Asian range:3
        • Bengali বানেহারা banehara; Nepali रज बाम rajbam, rem; Meitei naprum; Odia thumbi; Marathi ahir
        • Tamil porivilangu, seram pambu, vilangu; Malayalam ആരല് aral, maniangal, vilangu; Kannada hanchumeenu, harimeenu; Telugu malugu
        • Sinhala pulli arndha, kaha arndha, gal arndha, vali arndha, polon arndha
        • Burmese nga-mee-toung; Malay belut Benggala; Mandarin 孟加拉鳗鲡
    • A. b. labiata (Peters 1852) (African Bengal eel; formerly African mottled eel)1
      • Older and alternative scientific names: originally Muraena (Anguilla) labiata Peters 1852; A. macrophthalmos Peters 1852.2
      • Names: Chichewa nkunga, given at species level and presumably for this subspecies in Malawi.3
  • A. marmorata Quoy & Gaimard 1824 (Indo-Pacific eel; formerly marbled eel, giant mottled eel). The name reflects its wide range, which holds at least four populations.1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. fidjiensis Günther 1870; A. hildebrandti Peters 1881 and Sauvage 1891; A. johannae Günther 1867; A. labrosa Richardson 1848; Muraena manillensis Bleeker 1864. A. mauritiana Bennett 1831 remains contested: Ege (1939) placed it here, Dor (1984) under A. anguilla and Menon (1999) under A. bengalensis.2
    • Names:
      • Japanese オオウナギ ō-unagi. In 1727 Kaempfer described unagi as the common eel and ōunagi as a much larger one.6
      • Mandarin 花鳗鲡; Taiwan 鱸鰻; Cantonese 花錦鱔; Korean 무태장어3
      • iTaukei diria5
      • Tahitian puhi pa'a, puhi poa, tuna; Marquesan kuee, kaee hinu; Carolinian (Northern Mariana Islands) tigitol; Bislama marai, mera, merit, wewe3
      • Malagasy amalombandana, amalona (Betsimisaraka), drietra (Sakalava); Afrikaans reus-bontpaling, Madagaskar-bontpaling; Portuguese (Mozambique) enguia gigante; French anguille marbrée; Creole z'amab3
      • Malay belut sinsilog; Javanese uling, sidat; Khmer antong tunleir; Lao pa lai fai fa3
  • A. reinhardtii Steindachner 1867 (Australian longfin eel; formerly speckled longfin eel, longfin eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. marginipinnis Macleay 1883, in part (the rest belongs to A. obscura).2
    • Names:
      • Dharug burra, which Dollin applies to both local species.7
      • Laura Traditional Owners use the local name 'eel', and Laura rock art depicts the species.8
      • English spotted eel, conger eel, marbled eel; French (Vanuatu) anguille tachetée, anguille de Reinhardt; Bislama marau paeta3

Group 3

  • A. borneensis Popta 1924 (Borneo eel; formerly Indonesian longfinned eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: possibly a synonym of A. malgumora Kaup 1857.2 See Doubts for Future Development.
    • Names: none found in languages of Borneo.3
  • A. japonica Temminck & Schlegel 1846 (Japanese eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. angustidens Kaup; A. breviceps Chu & Jin 1984; A. clathrata Richardson 1845 (suppressed); A. manabei Jordan 1913; A. nigricans Chu & Wu 1984; Muraena pekinensis Basilewsky 1855; A. remifera Jordan & Evermann 1902; A. sinensis McClelland 1843 (nomen oblitum). A. foochowensis Chu & Jin 1984 now sits under A. bicolor.2
    • Names:
      • Japanese ウナギ unagi and ニホンウナギ nihon-unagi, which newspapers write in katakana, hiragana and kanji.9 Kaempfer's 1727 account names unagi as the common eel.6
      • Mandarin 日本鳗鲡 rì běn mán lí, 鳗鲡 mán lí, 鳗鱼 mán yú, bái shàn; Cantonese 白鱔 bat sin, man ue; Taiwan 日本鰻; Korean 뱀장어 paen-jang-ǒ; Vietnamese cá chình Nhật; Thai ปลาไหลญี่ปุ่น3
  • A. rostrata (Lesueur 1817) (American eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: originally Muraena rostrata Lesueur 1817. Lesueur's A. argentea, A. bostoniensis, A. macrocephala and A. serpentina; Rafinesque's A. aterrima, A. blephura, A. chrisypa (or chrysypa), A. laticauda (or laticanda), A. lutea and A. xanthomelas; Kaup's A. cubana, A. macrops, A. novaeorleanensis, A. novaeterrae, A. punctatissima, A. texana and A. wabashensis; A. tenuirostris DeKay 1842; A. tyrannus Girard 1858; Leptocephalus grassii Eigenmann & Kennedy 1902, a larva. Chereshnev (1996) treated the American eel as a subspecies of A. anguilla.2
    • Names:
      • Mi'kmaw (interviews at Eskasoni First Nation):10
        • Kataq eels; Katew a single eel; Kate'j baby or little eels; ɨpqasaw a bigger eel for baking
        • Katewapu eel soup; Skmoqn eel slime; Paqsɨmɨn cutting along the back
        • Nkioql eel spear for summer; N'atuwaqn eel spear for winter; Sum'kwati eeling pole of black spruce
        • Kate'kemk catching eels; Saqsikwemk eeling at night with a light; Kata'skw eelgrass
      • Mi'kmaq (Paqtnkek): Kat, the American eel and a spiritual being; kadaagel, eel skin. Mi'kmaq believe that Jipijka'maq, the Great Horned Serpent, is the eel.11
      • Anishinaabemowin Pimizi or Bimisi. Mamiwininimowin, the Algonquin dialect, adds the specialised words minàshkadjosh, mizay, agakanàgwe and sakàdeboye.12 Gansworth writes pimisi for the Mamiwininimowin word.13, 14
      • Algonquin Kichisippi Pimisi, the American eel of the Ottawa River. Elder William Commanda titled a note Manoshkadosh: The American Eel.15
      • Cree kinebikoinkosew, eels, literally "snake-fish"; western Ojibway Ke-na-beek gwummaig; Choctaw nanni-saint, later iasinti and yasinti, literally "fish-snake".12
      • French (Canada) anguille d'Amérique; Spanish anguila, anguila americana; Papiamentu anguía; Dutch (Caribbean) aal, paling; Portuguese (Brazil) enguia3
  • A. anguilla (Linnaeus 1758) (European eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: originally Muraena anguilla Linnaeus 1758, spelled "angvilla" and based on at least 34 pre-Linnaean sources. The Catalog lists about 50 later names and varieties.2 Examples:
      • A. vulgaris Shaw 1803 and Rafinesque 1810; A. fluviatilis Anslijn 1828 and Gistel 1848; A. migratoria Krøyer 1849; A. linnei Malm 1877
      • Snout shape: A. acutirostris, A. latirostris and A. mediorostris Risso 1827; A. platyrhynchus Costa 1850; A. oblongirostris Blanchard 1866
      • Habitat: Rafinesque's 1810 varieties fluviatilis, lacustus and marina (nomina nuda)
      • Place: A. hibernica Couch 1865 (River Liffey); A. nilotica Heckel 1847; A. canariensis Valenciennes 1843; A. callensis Guichenot 1850 (Algeria); A. aegyptiaca Kaup; Muraena oxyrhina and M. platyrhina Ekström 1832 (Sweden)
      • Vernacular words: A. capitone and A. ancidda Kaup 1856 to 1857; A. morena Kaup
      • Larva: Leptocephalus brevirostris Kaup 1857
    • Names (a selection from 265 in FishBase):3
      • Germanic and Nordic: German Aal; Dutch aal, paling; Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ål; Icelandic áll; Faroese állur, álakálvur, álladrumbur, álvinda
      • Celtic: Irish eascann; Welsh llysywen; Manx astan
      • Romance: French anguille; Spanish and Catalan anguila; Portuguese enguia, eiró, iró; Italian anguilla, with dialect names such as Venetian bisato and Sicilian ancidda, and capitone for a large eel; Corsican anguilla; Romanian anghilă; Latin anguilla
      • Baltic, Finnic and Hungarian: Old Prussian angurgis; Lithuanian ungurys; Latvian zutis; Estonian angerjas; Finnish ankerias; Hungarian angolna
      • Slavic: Polish węgorz; Czech úhoř; Slovak úhor; Russian угорь; Ukrainian вугор; Croatian and Serbian jegulja; Slovene jegulja, jegula; Macedonian jagula; Bulgarian zmiorka
      • Albanian ngjala; Greek χέλι (cheli); Maltese sallura; Turkish yılan balığı
      • Arabic: Egypt hannash, anklies oroubi; Lebanon h'anklyss; Tunisia hancha; Algeria hnech, selbah; Morocco noune
      • Hebrew צלופח tzlofach; Persian مارماهي mar mahi
    • For stage names, see Life Stages, Sizes and Runs. Cf. Venice.
  • A. dieffenbachii Gray 1842 (New Zealand longfin eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. aucklandii Richardson 1848; A. waitei Phillipps 1925.2
    • Names: te reo Māori tuna refers to eels, specifically freshwater eels, and in some contexts to conger eels and other eel-like fish. There are over 100 tribal names for freshwater eels, describing their colours and sizes.16 Wairarapa Māori call the last and largest migrants kōkopu tuna, which Leach and colleagues identify as longfins.16, 17
  • A. mossambica (Peters 1852) (Mozambique eel; formerly African longfin eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: originally Muraena (Anguilla) mossambica Peters 1852; Tribranchus anguillaris Peters 1846; A. capensis Kaup 1859 and Castelnau 1861; A. delalandi Kaup 1857, spelled lalandi by Sauvage.2
    • Names: Afrikaans geelbek-paling; Portuguese enguia moçambicana; Malagasy amalomaitso, amalomainty, tona (Betsimisaraka); Swahili and Pokomo mkunga; French anguille du Mozambique3

Group 4

  • A. bicolor McClelland 1844 (Bicolor eel; formerly shortfin eel, Indonesian shortfin eel). The only standard name without locality information.1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: A. amblodon Günther 1867; Kaup's A. bleekeri, A. cantori, A. dussumieri and A. malabarica; Muraena halmaherensis Bleeker 1863; A. macrocephala Rapp 1849; A. moa Bleeker 1849 and A. mowa Bleeker 1852; A. sidat Bleeker 1852; A. spengeli Weber 1912; A. virescens Peters 1852; A. foochowensis Chu & Jin 1984. The status of A. malgumora Kaup 1857 remains contested.2
    • Names given at species level:3
      • Bunuba (Kimberley, Australia) lanyi
      • Sinhala kalu aandha, kakkuta arndha; Tamil விலாங்கு vilangu; Malayalam mlangil; Kannada hanchu, hanchumeenu; Maldivian valuveng; Burmese nga-she-gya
      • Swahili mkunga; Pokomo mkunga, mukunga; Chichewa nkunga; Afrikaans kortvin-paling; Portuguese (Mozambique) enguia de barbatana curta
      • Malay belut dwiwarna, badung; Khmer trey chlok; Mandarin 双色鳗鲡
      • Fijian tuku, although Pickering and Sasal leave the presence of the species in Fiji unconfirmed.5
    • A. b. bicolor (Indian bicolor eel; formerly Indonesian shortfin eel, Indian shortfin eel)1
    • A. b. pacifica Schmidt 1928 (Pacific bicolor eel; formerly Indonesian, Indian or Pacific shortfin eel)1
      • Names: Mandarin 太平洋双色鳗鲡3
  • A. obscura Günther 1872 (Polynesian shortfin eel; formerly Pacific shortfin eel, Pacific shortfinned eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: described from Fiji; part of A. marginipinnis Macleay 1883.2
    • Names: iTaukei badamu or malavo.5 Fijian malavo, bonu; Tahitian puhi vari, ta'a repo, tuna; Rapa puhi; French anguille de vase, anguille sombre; Bislama chuma.3
  • A. australis Richardson 1841 (Australian eel; formerly short-finned eel, southern shortfin eel)1
    • Older and alternative scientific names: Schmidt's 1928 forms occidentalis and orientalis (Ege placed orientalis under schmidtii in 1939, and Paxton under australis in 1989); A. nigropunctata Cuvier (nomen nudum).2
    • A. a. australis (Australian shortfin eel; formerly short-finned eel)1
      • kooyang, "known as 'kooyang' in local Aboriginal languages" of south-western Victoria, and significant to the Gunditjmara, Kirrae Wirrung and Gadabanud peoples.18, 19, 20, 21 Wadawurrung list "Eels (Kooyang)" among seasonal foods around Geelong.22
      • Eastern Kulin Iuk, glossed "Southern Shortfin Eel (Anguilla australis)", names the March season when "Iuk (eels) are fat and ready to harvest".23
      • Boon Wurrung yoe.hoke, which George Robinson recorded at Tromgin in January 1841, together with the spear names toke.in and yoke.wil.loke.24
      • Dharug burra, for both local species.7
    • A. a. schmidtii Phillipps 1925 (New Zealand shortfin eel; formerly short-finned eel). Described from Foxton, New Zealand.2
      • Names: te reo Māori tuna covers both native species.16 Leach and colleagues note that short-finned eels are commonest in coastal ponds, lakes and swamps, and leave the earlier Wairarapa runs unassigned to species.17

Names Across Several Species

  • Polynesian and Austronesian tuna. The word tuna (freshwater eel) reconstructs to Proto-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic and, as *tuNa, Proto-Austronesian.17 Polynesians "applied existing language to familiar things when they settled in new lands", so meanings drift between islands:17
    • Freshwater eel: Māori, Samoa, Niue, Rarotonga, East Futuna, West Futuna and Tuamotu tuna; Waya tuna "Freshwater eels, Anguillidae"; Fiji duna; Rotuma funa; Hawaiʻi kuna "Eel freshwater spp."; Tonga tuna, with tahi and vai
    • Other eels: Pukapuka tuna "Striped lagoon eel"; Takuu tuna "Moray eel"; Rennell tuna "Kind of lake eel"; Tikopia tuna "Eels, especially lake eels"
    • Beyond eels: Tuvalu tuna "Eel, freshwater crayfish"; Nukuoro duna "Larvae of mosquito"
    • On Anuta, the freshwater eel is "said to be extinct".
  • Polynesian pusi and puhi. *pusi (sea eel, Gymnothorax) reconstructs to Proto-Polynesian. Tahiti puhi is the "General name for moray eels"; Māori puhi a "Large eel variety" and puhi-rokoroko a "Yellow Saltwater Eel, Lamprey"; Marquesas puhi "Anguille"; Rarotonga pu'i a "Large black, sea-eel, not Moray"; Hawaiʻi puuhi "Eel"; Emae pusi a "Parasitic worm"; Rotuma tepuhi a banded sea snake.17 Tahitian and Rapa names for anguillids also use puhi.3
  • Māori classification. In one tradition, Tuna came from Puna-kauariki, a spring in the highest heavens, with the families Para (frostfish), Ngōiro (conger eel) and Tuere (hagfish or blind eel). When the heavenly waters dried up, Tuna stayed in fresh water and the others went to the sea. In another, Māui cut the giant eel Tuna in half: one half became the conger eel and the other the freshwater eel. The eel-like piharau (lamprey), also called korokoro or kanakana, was an important food.16
  • iTaukei. duna names all freshwater eels, and species names sit within the cultural values of vanua.5
  • Island Southeast Asia. Malay and Indonesian belut, with qualifiers for species (belut Benggala, belut dwiwarna, belut sinsilog), plus sidat, uling and moa; Tagalog igat; Cebuano and Waray kasili.3
  • South Asia. Tamil and Malayalam vilangu and Sinhala arndha or aandha compounds recur across A. bengalensis and A. bicolor.3
  • East Africa. Swahili mkunga and Chichewa nkunga recur across A. bengalensis, A. bicolor, A. marmorata and A. mossambica.3
  • Vanuatu. Bislama marai, mera and namarae recur across several species.3
  • North America. Where people live outside the range of eels and know less of their food value, the word for eel derives partly from kinebik (snake), as in Cree and western Ojibway. Along the southern Mississippi, where snakes are more common, Choctaw inverts the terms into "fish-snake".12
  • Australia.
    • One review states that "the Aboriginal word for eel is 'burra' in Australia", widely found in place names.25 See Doubts for Future Development.
    • In Laura (Cape York), Traditional Owners use the local names 'eel', 'jewfish' (eel-tailed catfish) and 'catfish' (fork-tailed catfish). In the rock art, "scientific and Aboriginal categories imperfectly correspond", the divisions between 'jewfish' and 'eel' blur, and ambiguity works as "a cultural value and communication mode".8
    • In a Gugu-Yalanji story, Munnobungle the eel speared Nooramulli the rainbow serpent, who made a creek as he crawled away.26, 8
    • Awu Ara u (Hollow Log language), a Thaypanic clan language, takes its name from the artefact used to trap eels.8

Life Stages, Sizes and Runs

Skin pattern changes between stages, which is one reason the standard English names ignore it.1 Many languages name stages, sizes and runs separately, because people meet eels at particular stages, places and seasons.

  • Larva (leptocephalus). French leptocéphale.3 Naturalists first described eel larvae as separate species: Leptocephalus brevirostris Kaup 1857 is now a synonym of A. anguilla, and Leptocephalus grassii Eigenmann & Kennedy 1902 of A. rostrata.2
  • Glass eel (unpigmented young).
    • English glass eel; German Glasaal for lightly pigmented young, and Aalbrut or Montée at any degree of pigmentation; French civelle27
    • French pibale, piballe; Spanish angula; Portuguese (Madeira) meixão; Italian cieche, ceche; Faroese glasállur; Russian угорь стеклянный3
    • Japanese shirasu unagi, as in the title of a Japanese study of the inshore migration of glass eels28
    • Mi'kmaw Kate'j, baby or little eels10
  • Elver (pigmented young). English elver; Japanese kuroko.29 German Satzaale for small, fully pigmented eels "not yet suitable for marketing".27
  • Yellow eel. German Gelbaal and Grünaal; French anguille jaune and anguille verte, where "green" may imply immaturity; English yellow eel, occasionally golden eel.27 Swedish gulål.3
  • Part-grown eel. Mamiwininimowin minàshkadjosh names eels "grown part way to maturity" and "the size and colour of a water snake". Algonquin people shun harvesting them at this stage, which lets more eels mature for the migration to the sea.12
  • Silver eel. German Blankaal; English silver eel or bronze eel.27 French anguille argentée; Swedish blankål.3
  • Migrating eels and runs.
    • Māori heke tuna or tuna heke, migrating eels.16, 30
    • In 1965 Wairarapa elder Tame Saunders described four types that migrate in the same order: hao (king eels, about 30 cm, silver-bellied), riko (greenish-backed, about a metre), paranui (dark and thick-skinned) and kōkopu tuna (up to 1.8 m).16 Each type received its own preparation, from drying and grilling to splitting, salting and smoking.17
  • Size and quality. Italian capitone, a large eel;3 Kaup's A. capitone takes the same word as its epithet.2 Mi'kmaw ɨpqasaw, a bigger eel for baking.10 Māori puhi, a large eel variety.17
  • Counting. Medieval English rents counted eels in sticks of 25 and binds of 10 sticks.31
  • For parts, products, dishes and gear, see Food, Equipment and Practices.

Etymology

  • Latin. anguilla shares a root with anguis (snake). Scielzo links the same root to the name of Baba-Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore, and to many words in European languages.32
  • English eel. Old English æl sits close to ea (running water) and became confused with Middle English isle. In Northumberland dialect, eel or eale means both an island and low-lying ground subject to frequent flooding.31
  • English elver. Every spring, Londoners trapped elvers in an event called the "Eel-fare", from "to fare", meaning to travel, later the "Eel-Faire". A popular nineteenth-century belief derives elver from eel-fare.31 Liberman dates elver ("young eel") to 1640, as a variant of eelfare. He matches its second element with -fare in fieldfare and -fer in heifer, a suffix that once meant "dweller" or "occupant", and treats the "farer" reading of fieldfare as folk etymology.33
  • Anishinaabemowin pimizi. Allen derives Pimizi from pimiy (grease), "recognition of the high fat food value of the eel".12 Gansworth reports Allen's suggestion that pimisi relates to bimide (fat or oil), since "eel flesh is very fatty".13
  • Snake and fish. Cree kinebikoinkosew combines "snake" and "fish", and Choctaw nanni-saint inverts the order.12
  • Mi'kmaw kat-. Many Mi'kmaw eel words share the stem of Kataq, including Kata'skw (eelgrass), Katewapu (eel soup) and Kate'kemk (catching eels).10
  • Austronesian *tuNa. See Names Across Several Species.17
  • Vernacular words in scientific names. Bleeker's A. moa, A. mowa and A. sidat and Kaup's A. ancidda and A. capitone appear to borrow the vernacular names moa, sidat, Sicilian ancidda and Italian capitone.2, 3 This reading needs checking against the original descriptions.

Place Names and Named Places

  • England. Ely, "pronounced eel-y", in eastern England.25 Leach and colleagues write that the town "is named after the eel" and hosts an annual eel festival.17 Bede included eels in his opening descriptions of Britain, and later chroniclers and geographers identified the land with its eels.31
  • Ireland. The Gaelic word eascann appears in many place names.25
  • Aotearoa New Zealand. tuna appears widely in place names.25
  • Australia.
    • Uncle Chris Tobin (Dharug) tells how the Burra's cycle connected Mountain, Riverland and Coastal Darug communities and allowed "a multitude of clans to meet in Burramatta (Parramatta) during the Autumn months when the Eels were heading out to the ocean". An annual Eel Festival at Elizabeth Farm celebrates "Parramatta's namesake, the eel".7
    • In Melbourne, Webb Bridge, "locally known as Eel Trap Bridge", takes the form of a Koorie eel trap; an Eel Trap sculpture by Fiona Clarke and Ken McKean features on a city heritage walk; and an Eel Bridge crosses the ornamental lake at the Royal Botanic Gardens near Tromgin.24 Cf. Melbourne.
    • Lake Condah is Tae Rak in the Dhauwurd Wurrung language, and Mount Eccles is Budj Bim, interpreted as "forehead" or "high head".18
    • Nineteenth-century records published in 1892, 1897 and 1901 include Aboriginal place names around Condah Swamp, near the Gunditjmara eel traps.34 Cf. Budj Bim.
  • Ottawa River. Kichisippi, meaning "big river", is the original Algonquin name for the Ottawa River.15
  • Ontario. Otonabee, the Anishinaabemowin name of the river through Peterborough; Eels Creek at Lovesick Lake, near a submerged wooden stake structure for harvesting eels.12
  • Barrier words. Allen links Anishinaabemowin words for barriers and fences (nishigans, michikan, mitchikan) to the fish fences used to trap eels, and reads them in Michigan, M'Chigeeng First Nation, Mnjikaning and Mitchikanibikok. He argues that Indigenous words for eel and for "stone eel harvesting fence" "survive in multiple locations on the map and identify favourite traditional locations for harvesting eels", so that Indigenous languages record the traditional range of the American eel.12
  • Nova Scotia. Petroglyphs in Kejimkujik National Park suggest the presence of Jipijka'maq. Ruts in the land are "the track of the serpent people", and the park holds the remains of stone eel weirs.11
  • Japan. In the mid-Edo period, the unagi-kaidō (eel road) carried eels caught in the Nakaumi lagoon in Izumo through the Chugoku region.6 In the 1860s, 20 to 30 traders a day walked about 250 km to Osaka, and eel ponds and place names survive along the road.25 Cf. Japan.

Idioms and Figurative Language

  • French. se faufiler comme une anguille ("slip away like an eel") for escaping a difficult situation; comme une anguille ("like an eel") for something hard to grasp; il y a anguille sous roche ("there's an eel under the rock") for a fishy situation.25
  • Japanese. unagi nobori ("eel climbing") for something that continues to rise.25
  • English. Shakespeare used eels more than any other fish. English writers used eels in metaphors of slipperiness, religion, politics, sex and physical morphology, and eels on the Bayeux Tapestry often stand for Englishness.31
  • Māori. Proverbs call the elusive tuna ko Tangaroa ara rau ("Tangaroa of the many paths or ways").30

Food, Equipment and Practices

Vocabularies of gear, food and practice record how people and eels meet. Many also encode seasons, law and limits on harvest.

Aotearoa New Zealand

Te reo Māori terms from Te Ara unless marked otherwise.16

  • Weirs.
    • pā tuna, an eel weir used in autumn to catch eels heading downstream to spawn
    • pā tauremu, two fences set in a V that funnel eels through a pūrangi (net) into a hīnaki
    • pā auroa, a single fence on the Whanganui River, built almost parallel to the current to cope with driftwood
    • mauri, talismans, usually stones, placed near weirs to protect the number and health of eels
    • utu piharau, lamprey weirs. The Whanganui River held more than 350 pā tuna and 92 utu piharau in the 1880s. Settlers removed almost all of them by 1900, despite petitions from more than 500 tribal members.
  • Pots.
    • hīnaki, an eel pot; hīnaki tukutuku with one entrance; hīnaki tarino, a large type used in the Waikato; hīnaki waharua ("two mouths") with an entrance at each end
    • akura, the entrance with a funnel of inward-pointing sticks that lets eels in but not out. In one story, Māui invented it after eels kept escaping his brothers' pots.
    • pū toke, a small bait pot; tōrehe, a small flax bait bag
    • Materials: mangemange (Lygodium articulatum), aerial roots of kiekie, aka-tororaro, supplejack and flax
  • Torches, nets and spears.
    • rama tuna, eeling by torch light with a rama (torch flare), often of māpara, the heartwood of kahikatea
    • kōrapa, a Ngāti Porou hoop net on a straight handle
    • matarau, an eel spear, often with seven points; taotahi, or pātia in the South Island, a single-pointed spear
    • The maramataka (lunar calendar) governed eeling. Moonlit nights were poor for it.
  • Bobbing, feeling and striking.
    • toi, bobbing; mōunu (bait) or tui (to thread), a made-up bob; tui toke, a bob of earthworms; tui huhu, a bob of huhu grubs; noke waiū (big white worms) with wīwī in the South Island; whaka-puku, a bob for conger eels
    • rapu tuna, seeking eels by hand or foot; takahi tuna, stamping to drive eels from hiding towards a catcher; patu tuna, striking eels with a thin rod
  • Mass harvest. kōumu, a pit or channel dug through sand or gravel and fed by the lake, used at Lake Wairarapa and Te Waihora; kōhau, net traps at Te Waihora; karakia, including one for the first eels of a season.
  • Cooking and preserving. kope or kōpaki, eels wrapped in leaves and roasted over embers; tāpora, eels packed into a small basket with pūhā and mauku; tuna pāwhara or tuna maroke, preserved eels, later softened by steaming in a hāngī; ahi parapara, the sacred fire on which a youth's first catch was cooked.
  • Keeping live eels.
    • korotete, an eel cage, which in Ōtaki could hold up to 300 eels
    • whare tuna, shelters that Ngāti Kuru-mokihi of Tūtira built in the water and filled with rimurimu (waterweed). Eels gathered there of their own accord.
    • Stocking: matamoe and haumate tuna, two types of eel, were put into a former lagoon at Miramar, Wellington.
  • Governance. rāhui, a temporary ritual prohibition, closed season or reserve, which only mana whenua can apply; kaitiakitanga, guardianship.35

Australia

  • Gunditjmara. kooyang aquaculture at Budj Bim uses channels, traps and ponds on the lava flow, including at Lake Condah (Tae Rak).18, 19 Residues at the bases of hollowed-out trees may show that eels were smoked for eating and storage, and eels were a valuable trade item at large meetings of Gunditjmara and other language groups.18
  • Boon Wurrung. Spears toke.in and yoke.wil.loke; yoke.wil, a spear made from a half-inch stick and wire.24
  • Melbourne area. karawun (mat rush), whose leaves make baskets and eel traps.24
  • Cape York. Awu Ara u (Hollow Log language) takes its name from an eel trap.8

Pacific Islands

  • Fiji. Eels are a totem for some inland communities. In Ra Province, people spearfish in the dry season, when deep pools become accessible. A large catch without wounds suggested the use of Derris root. Municipal markets seldom sell freshwater eels.5

North America

  • Mi'kmaw. Spears Nkioql (summer) and N'atuwaqn (winter); Sum'kwati, an eeling pole of black spruce; Saqsikwemk, eeling at night with a light; Paqsɨmɨn, cutting along the back; Katewapu, eel soup; Skmoqn, eel slime.10
  • Mi'kmaq. kadaagel (eel skin) tightens when dried and served as bindings for sleds, moccasins, clothing, spears and harpoons. Painted eel skin went into hair ornaments. Stone eel weirs survive in Kejimkujik National Park.11
  • Anishinaabemowin. Words for barriers and fences (nishigans, michikan, mitchikan) relate to fish fences. In 1634 the Jesuits described weirs "capable of holding five or six hundred eels".12
  • Algonquin. People wasted no part of pimisi: medicines; skin for medicine bags and bandages for sores and broken bones; bladder lining for paint; bones for needles and arrowheads; and parts for ceremonies.15

Japan

  • Dishes.6
    • kabayaki, fillets dipped in a sweet soy-based sauce and grilled, invented in the mid-Edo period. The name derives from gamayaki, because skewered chopped eel resembled a cattail (gama).
    • unadon, kabayaki on a rice bowl (una from unagi, don from donburi); unajū, kabayaki on rice in a lunch box (jū from jūbako)
    • shirayaki, grilled without soy sauce; hitsumabushi, chopped kabayaki mixed with rice; seiromushi, steamed kabayaki; uzaku, chopped kabayaki with pickled vegetables; umaki, rolled eel omelette; kimosui, eel-liver soup; unagi-zōsui, rice porridge with chopped kabayaki
  • Days. People eat eels on Doyo Ushi no Hi, a special day in summer, against summer fatigue, a tradition said to date back over a thousand years.25
  • Stories. Rakugo classics include "Unagiya" ("The Eel Broiler"), "Unagi no Taiko", "Unagidani", "Shirouto Unagi" and "Goshō Unagi".6
  • Fishing. juzu-tsuri, bobbing, which French calls la pêche à la vermée; shibazuke, a bush dip; ishikura, piled stones in the tidal zone near river mouths, still used in Kyushu and Shikoku; baitless eel tubes, once of bamboo and now often PVC; kaki-ami, secondary guiding gear, which Japan prohibits for the glass-eel harvest.29
  • Labels. Supermarkets sell kabayaki as "domestic" or "Chinese" without any obligation to label the species.29

Europe

  • English gear. The eel-glaive, a type of eel spear that saints hold in some church images; the eel pick; eel traps at mills in the Luttrell Psalter; grig, a term for a small eel and for an eel trap.31 Eel bucks on the Thames; sniggling, from snig (a small eel), first recorded in 1614, with a 1775 sense "to fish for eels by putting bait to the holes in which they conceal themselves"; fyke nets for commercial fishing; tanned eel skin as leather.36
  • Surnames and heraldry. Families named Eel, Eales, Elwis and Grigg bore related arms and crests. The Eales arms show three eels.31
  • Medicine. Yorkshire folklore recommended wearing eel-skin garters against cramps.31
  • English food. London's "eels, pie, mash, and liquor", the traditional food of the cockney working class; liquor, a thin parsley sauce once made with the juice of boiled eels; jellied eels; stewed eels.37 Medieval recipes call for salted or "powdered" eels.31
  • French food. matelote;25 les anguilles reverses (reversed eels), a French dish that seems to have gained little purchase in England.31
  • Netherlands. gerookte paling, eel hot-smoked over wood chips and sold whole, a prestigious commodity for urbanites by the 1890s.38
  • Italy. At Comacchio, lavoriero weirs with V-shaped walls of woven reeds, first documented in 1494;36 vallicoltura, a lagoon fishery stocked with glass eels from the Adriatic; Anguilla marinata, eels skewered, roasted, marinated in vinegar and salt and canned. The former cannery now houses a museum, the Manifattura dei Marinati.38 Cf. Venice.

Doubts for Future Development

  • Taxonomy. The earlier list in Eel followed Watanabe (2003), with A. ancestralis and A. nebulosa.4 Current usage treats these as synonyms of A. celebesensis and A. bengalensis, and adds A. luzonensis, described in 2009.1, 2
  • Contested synonyms. A. borneensis may be a synonym of A. malgumora; A. interioris was once treated as a synonym of A. reinhardtii; A. mauritiana has been placed under three species.2
  • Subspecies. Their status may change, which would change the standard names.1
  • FishBase attributions. FishBase lists Philippine and Indonesian names for A. australis, Samoan tuna for A. celebesensis, many translations from languages far from each range, and generic words repeated across species. Treat its names as leads to check with speakers.3
  • Fiji. Pickering and Sasal give tautaubale for A. megastoma and badamu or malavo for A. obscura, while FishBase gives bādamu for A. megastoma.5, 3 FishBase gives Fijian tuku for A. bicolor, whose presence in Fiji remains unconfirmed.5
  • Hawaiʻi. POLLEX glosses Hawaiian kuna as "Eel freshwater spp." and puuhi as "Eel".17 Hawaiʻi appears to lack native anguillids, so these words may keep an ancestral meaning or name other fishes. Needs checking.
  • Malagasy tona. Malagasy is an Austronesian language, so a link between tona (A. mossambica) and tuna is plausible. It needs a linguist's assessment.3, 17
  • burra as "the Aboriginal word". Dollin records burra as the Dharug name for both local species.7 The review that calls it "the Aboriginal word for eel ... in Australia" overlooks the many Aboriginal languages, which include kooyang, Iuk, yoe.hoke and lanyi above, and gives no source for its place-name claim.25
  • Kulin eel season. Eel Project quotes a passage naming February and March wygabil-ny-ewin (eel season), with Birrarung (Yarra) and Nairm (Port Phillip Bay), without a source. The Museums Victoria calendar names the March season Iuk.23
  • kooyang. The sources name the peoples (Gunditjmara, Kirrae Wirrung and Gadabanud) and say "local Aboriginal languages" without naming the languages, apart from the Wadawurrung list and Dhauwurd Wurrung for Tae Rak.18, 22
  • Māori names for the two species. Te Ara reports over 100 tribal names describing colours and sizes, without listing them.16 Leach and colleagues assign only kōkopu tuna to a species.17 The two accounts of Saunders (1965) differ slightly: riko are 90 to 120 cm in one and about a metre in the other, and kōkopu tuna weigh up to 27 kg or just under 30 kg.16, 17
  • No names found. Names in local languages for A. interioris (New Guinea), A. borneensis (Borneo) and A. luzonensis (Luzon, Taiwan).
  • Anishinaabemowin spellings and senses. Pimizi and Bimisi (Allen), pimisi (Gansworth, Algonquins of Ontario); pimiy (Allen) and bimide (Gansworth) for grease or fat.12, 13, 15 Allen and his source McGregor give minàshkadjosh as a stage, while Commanda uses Manoshkadosh for the American eel.12, 15 The meanings of mizay, agakanàgwe and sakàdeboye remain unrecorded here.12
  • Allen's readings of place names. Allen himself offers his reading of Otonabee for scrutiny "by those fluent in Anishinaabemowin", and the barrier-word place names need the same.12
  • Mi'kmaw orthography. Giles and colleagues write Kataq and Katew, the Paqtnkek fact sheet Kat. The converted text of Giles and colleagues renders one character as "⍭", read here as ɨ in ɨpqasaw and Paqsɨmɨn. Check against the PDF.10, 11
  • Scientific epithets from vernacular names. Inferred here from the lists. Check against the original descriptions.2
  • Portuguese meixão. FishBase lists it for Madeira only.3
  • Trade names. Consumer labels such as "domestic" and "Chinese" kabayaki hide species, which matters for conservation and trafficking.29 Cf. Trafficking, Legality and Harm.

Research Questions

  • Whose names, where? Which names do Traditional Owners and other language communities want used, by whom and in which contexts? Abbott compiled more than 3,200 records of Aboriginal names for 177 bird species in south-west Western Australia and proposed adopting them into common usage, aligning spelling with conventions determined by Noongar people. He noted that ornithologists used none of them, "despite many appearing more apposite than existing vernacular names".39 A comparable, consent-based list could serve eels.
  • Categories. How do Indigenous and local categories (runs, sizes, stages, colours, eel-like beings) map onto Linnaean species, and where do they refuse to map? Cf. Laura rock art,8 Wairarapa runs16, 17 and Mi'kmaw vocabulary.10
  • Names as historical ecology. Can names and place names serve as data on former range and abundance, as Allen argues for the American eel?12 Cf. Historical Ecology.
  • Harvest ethics. Do other stage vocabularies encode harvest rules like the Algonquin avoidance of minàshkadjosh?12
  • Voyaging words. How did Polynesian speakers transfer tuna and puhi to new species and environments, including islands without anguillids?17 POLLEX-Online holds the comparative data.40
  • Surveys. Aboriginal harvest studies in New South Wales record eels by English common names only ("long fin eels, short fin eels").41 What would surveys learn by recording names in local languages?
  • Gippsland. Which Gunaikurnai names for eels exist? Mansergh and Hercus compiled nineteenth-century records of four Gippsland languages for mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians only. They note that "most of the literature consulted contains references to similar information for fish", so the same sources could yield eel names. They also discuss using such names to augment knowledge of the original distribution of fauna.42
  • Devices as precedents. Which named devices and practices (pā tuna, hīnaki with akura, whare tuna, kooyang traps, lavoriero, eel bucks, ishikura) could inform passage and habitat design, and on whose terms? Cf. Passage Infrastructure.
  • Tropical gaps. Which names exist for A. interioris, A. borneensis and A. luzonensis in the languages of their ranges?
  • Place names. A systematic gazetteer search for eascann, tuna, burra and other eel words, with community verification.
  • Perception. How do names and idioms shape public attitudes to eel conservation? Japanese newspapers use several scripts and names for eels.9

Implications for More-than-Human Design

  • Situated names. Calling an eel kooyang, Iuk or burra situates it in particular Countries and relations, while Australian eel situates it in a global taxonomy. Design projects can use both, each for its audience, with consent from language owners. Cf. Indigenous.
  • Stages and runs as design units. Vocabularies of stage, run and size show that people meet eels as particular beings at particular times and places. Briefs can address the glass-eel run, the heke tuna or the minàshkadjosh stage as distinct participants.
  • Names carry obligations. Names bring harvest ethics, law, kinship and story with them, so their use in design brings responsibilities too.
  • Devices record eel knowledge. The akura lets eels in but not out, whare tuna attract eels that enter of their own accord, and ishikura offer stone shelters. Such names hold design knowledge about eel behaviour.
  • Ambiguity. Laura rock art treats ambiguity as a cultural value.8 Design communication can hold overlapping categories open. Cf. Plurivers, Political Ontology.
  • Eels in civic identity. Eel-trap bridges, festivals and place names show eels already shaping urban and regional identity. Cf. Melbourne, Heritage.
  • Standard names for governance. Consistent English names help cross-border monitoring, while unlabelled trade names hide species. Cf. Trafficking, Legality and Harm.

References

Footnotes

  1. Tsukamoto, Katsumi, Mari Kuroki, and Shun Watanabe. “Common Names for All Species and Subspecies of the Genus Anguilla.” Environmental Biology of Fishes 103, no. 8 (2020): 985–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-00988-3.˄

  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes, California Academy of Sciences, species of Anguilla, electronic version updated 21 September 2026, accessed 27 September 2026.˄

  3. FishBase, common-name lists for each Anguilla species, for example A. anguilla, accessed 27 September 2026.˄

  4. Watanabe, Shun. “Taxonomy of the Freshwater Eels, Genus Anguilla Schrank, 1798.” In Eel Biology, edited by Katsumi Aida, Katsumi Tsukamoto, and Katsumi Yamauchi, 3–18. Tokyo: Springer, 2003.˄

  5. Pickering, Timothy D., and Pierre Sasal. Workshop on South Pacific Freshwater Eels, Suva, Fiji, 13–15 June 2016: Current Knowledge and Future Research. Noumea, New Caledonia: Pacific Community, 2016.˄

  6. Kuroki, Mari, Martien J. P. van Oijen, and Katsumi Tsukamoto. “Eels and the Japanese: An Inseparable, Long-Standing Relationship.” In Eels and Humans, edited by Katsumi Tsukamoto and Mari Kuroki, 91–108. Tokyo: Springer, 2014.˄

  7. Dollin, Jen. “Eel Worlds of the Dyarubbin: A Multispecies Ethnography.” PhD Thesis, Western Sydney University, 2025.˄

  8. Cole, Noelene, Christine Musgrave, Roseanne George, and Lynley Wallis. “Categorising Catfish, Jewfish and Eel Motifs in Laura (Quinkan) Rock Art, Cape York Peninsula, Australia.” Rock Art Research 41, no. 1 (2024): 28–40. https://doi.org/10.56801/rar.v41i1.271.˄

  9. Matsushige, Kazuki, and Yusuke Hibino. “Exploring Recent Japanese Public Perception of Freshwater Eels of the Genus Anguilla Using Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage.” Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 35, no. 7 (2025): e70164. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70164.˄

  10. Giles, Amber, Lucia Fanning, Shelley Denny, and Tyson Paul. “Improving the American Eel Fishery through the Incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge into Policy Level Decision Making in Canada.” Human Ecology 44, no. 2 (2016): 167–83. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-016-9814-0.˄

  11. Prosper, Kerry, and Mary J. Paulette. The Mi’kmaq Relationship With Kat (American Eel) Scientific Name: Anguilla rostrata. Fact Sheet No. 7. Antigonish: Paqtnkek Fish and Wildlife Commission, Social Research for Sustainable Fisheries, 2002.˄

  12. Allen, William A. “Otonabee Pimizi, American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) on the Journey to ‘The Land Between.’” Presentation. “Land Between” Research Forum, Peterborough, ON, 2007.˄

  13. Gansworth, Miskwadaynz Kristi Leora. “Anguilla rostrata, Our Teacher: Addressing Anishnabe Epistemicide through Eels.” PhD Thesis, York University, 2022.˄

  14. Gansworth, Miskwadaynz Kristi Leora. “Living in an Eel’s World.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 48, no. 3 (2025). https://doi.org/10.17953/A3.25347.˄

  15. Algonquins of Ontario. Returning Kichisippi Pimisi, the American Eel, to the Ottawa River Basin. Pembroke, ON: Algonquins of Ontario Consultation Office, 2012.˄

  16. Basil Keane, “Te hopu tuna – eeling,” Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 2012, pages 1, Origins and types of tuna, 2, Pā tuna, 3, Hīnaki, 4, Torches, nets and spears, 5, Bobbing, feeling and striking, 7, Cooking, preserving and storing and 8, Eel migrations, accessed 28 September 2026. Page 8 cites T. V. Saunders, “The Eels of Lake Wairarapa”, Te Ao Hou 51 (1965).˄

  17. Leach, B. Foss, Janet M. Davidson, and Fiona J. Teal. “Freshwater and Marine Eels in the Pacific and New Zealand: Food Avoidance Behaviour and Prohibitions.” Archaeofauna 31 (2022): 11–56. https://doi.org/10.15366/archaeofauna2022.31.001.˄

  18. Rose, Denis, Damein Bell, and David A. Crook. “Restoring Habitat and Cultural Practice in Australia’s Oldest and Largest Traditional Aquaculture System.” Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 26, no. 3 (2016): 589–600. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-016-9426-1.˄

  19. Smith, Anita, Ian J. McNiven, Denis Rose, Steve Brown, Chris Johnston, and Simon Crocker. “Indigenous Knowledge and Resource Management as World Heritage Values: Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Australia.” Archaeologies 15, no. 2 (2019): 285–313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-019-09368-5.˄

  20. Koster, Wayne, Ben Church, David Crook, David Dawson, Ben Fanson, Justin O’Connor, and Ivor Stuart. “Factors Influencing Migration of Short-Finned Eels (Anguilla australis) over 3 Years from a Wetland System, Lake Condah, South-East Australia, Downstream to the Sea.” Journal of Fish Biology 104, no. 6 (2024): 1824–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15726.˄

  21. Griffiths, Billy, Larissa Behrendt, and Sean Ulm. The First Inventors: How People Shaped a Continent. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2026.˄

  22. Jones, David S., and Phillip B. Roös, eds. Geelong’s Changing Landscape: Ecology, Development and Conservation. Clayton South: CSIRO, 2019.˄

  23. Museums Victoria, Eastern Kulin Seasonal Calendar, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, accessed 28 September 2026.˄

  24. Eidelson, Meyer. Melbourne Dreaming: A Guide to Important Places of the Past and Present. 1997. Expanded. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2014.˄

  25. Kuroki, Mari, David Righton, and Alan M. Walker. “The Importance of Anguillids: A Cultural and Historical Perspective Introducing Papers from the World Fisheries Congress.” Ecology of Freshwater Fish 23, no. 1 (2014): 2–6. https://doi.org/10.1111/eff.12089.˄

  26. Trezise, Percy J. Quinkan Country: Adventures in Search of Aboriginal Cave Paintings in Cape York. Sydney: Reed, 1969.˄

  27. Tesch, Friedrich-Wilhelm. The Eel. Edited by John E. Thorpe. Translated by Ray J. White. 1973. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2003.˄

  28. Aida, Katsumi, Katsumi Tsukamoto, and Katsumi Yamauchi, eds. Eel Biology. Tokyo: Springer, 2003.˄

  29. Tsukamoto, Katsumi. Eel Science. With Mari Kuroki and Soichi Watanabe. Singapore: Springer, 2023.˄

  30. Boswell, Anna. “The Sensible Order of the Eel.” Settler Colonial Studies 5, no. 4 (2015): 363–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473x.2014.1000910.˄

  31. Greenlee, John Wyatt. “Seeing All the Anguilles: Eels in the Cultural Landscape of Medieval and Early Modern England.” PhD Thesis, Cornell University, 2020.˄

  32. Scielzo, Caroline. “An Analysis of Bába-Yagá in Folklore and Fairy Tales.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis 43, no. 2 (1983): 167–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01253476.˄

  33. Liberman, Anatoly, and J. Lawrence Mitchell. An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.˄

  34. Richards, Thomas. “A Late Nineteenth-Century Map of an Australian Aboriginal Fishery at Lake Condah.” Australian Aboriginal Studies, no. 2 (2011): 64–87. https://doi.org/10.3316/informit.822883204634111.˄

  35. Hepi, Maria, Jeffrey Foote, Leane Makey, Monique Badham (Te Taoū, Ngāti Whātua), and Alyssce Te Huna (Ngāti Whātua, Te Uri o Hau, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Moroki). “Enabling Mātauranga-Informed Management of the Kaipara Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand.” New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 52, no. 4 (2018): 497–510. https://doi.org/10.1080/00288330.2018.1521845.˄

  36. Schweid, Richard. Eel. London: Reaktion, 2009.˄

  37. Freedman, Stuart. “Resistances from a Stubborn Past: London’s Fading Eel, Pie, and Mash Shops.” Gastronomica 23, no. 2 (2023): 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2023.23.2.17.˄

  38. Coates, Peter A. “Protecting Eurofisch: An Environmental History of the European Eel and Its Europeanness.” In Greening Europe: Environmental Protection in the Long Twentieth Century – a Handbook, edited by Anna-Katharina Wöbse and Patrick Kupper, 101–28. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110669213-006.˄

  39. Abbott, Ian. “Aboriginal Names of Bird Species in South-West Western Australia, with Suggestions for Their Adoption into Common Usage.” Conservation Science Western Australia 7, no. 2 (2009): 213–78.˄

  40. POLLEX-Online, the Polynesian Lexicon Project, the source of the cognate tables in Leach and colleagues via Biggs and Clark (1996), accessed 28 September 2026.˄

  41. Schnierer, Stephan, and Hayley Egan. “Composition of the Aboriginal Harvest of Fisheries Resources in Coastal New South Wales, Australia.” Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 26, no. 4 (2016): 693–709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-016-9452-z.˄

  42. Mansergh, Ian, and Luise A. Hercus. “An Aboriginal Vocabulary of the Fauna of Gippsland.” Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria 42, no. 2 (1981): 107–22. https://doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.1981.42.06.˄

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