Long, snake-like, muscular body makes the eel recognizable at the first sight. It doesn't have a belly fin and the back fin goes without interruptions round the tail, joining the under tail fin and creating a strong rudder with which it moves around. Small scales are hidden in the slimy skin. That fish has always aroused curiosity due to its mysterious life. Not much was known in the history about its life cycle so the Ilirians considered it to be a sacred animal, a demon of the waters. The name of the Ilirian tribe that lived by the river of Neretva-Enhalians is derived after the Greek name for eel. Adult, sexually mature females living in big schools, after ten years of living in muddy river waters usually move during the stormy autumn nights towards the mouth of the river where males wait for them. From there they go in big schools, which are no longer fed, to the Atlantic ocean- the Sargasso Sea, where in the big depths they spawn and die. Larva needs three years to be developed into little blind eels, which with a warm Golf stream move back to the European rivers. Fishing in the Neretva was always directed to eel, it was caught in big quantities and was a very important export product. However, with land improvement in the valley, especially after the dam was built, which limited big migrations, the number of eels has considerately been diminished. They are caught today in small quantities and usually end up on the tables of local restaurants. 

It is customary that live eel is kept in a special wooden container through which water flows, eel is not fed in it, and in that way its organism is cleaned, so it is more delicious.

Eel has a bone under the gill lid that can be taken out of the dead fish and read like the rings on a trunk, because a ring is formed for each year, so that the age of the fish can be determined.

size: females to 1 m, males to 0,5 m

weight: up to 3 kg

color: blue-green back, the stomach is ocher-yellow

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