Maine's black market for baby eels

A new book, “The Glass Eel,” wades into Maine’s shadowy baby‑eel trade, but the comments aren’t swimming along quietly. First splash: “This is an ad,” says one skeptic, pointing to the promo-y release line and dropping an archived link like a mic. The mood: suspicious of marketing, hungry for dirt on poaching, and ready to fact-check every fin.

Then the thread flips from crime to cuisine. One foodie flex: “Eels are surprisingly some of the healthiest fish to eat,” which sparks a debate over ethics vs appetite. Another commenter goes full nature doc, recalling being swarmed by glass eels while swimming — “surprisingly docile” — and confessing they’ve eaten them because they’re “legit delicious,” now feeling some guilt. Cue the drama: do we cheer the exposé, or side-eye a glossy book rollout that makes us crave the very thing it condemns?

To ground the chaos, a helpful explainer pops up: baby eels hatch in the Sargasso Sea (a weed-choked patch of the Atlantic), drift to North America as transparent “glass eels,” get caught in Maine, and are shipped to East Asia to grow into adults. It’s a slippery supply chain with sky-high prices, ripe for poaching — and ripe for snark. The thread’s vibe: true crime meets seafood channel, with jokes about “slippery ethics” and whether this is awareness or eel‑y good marketing.