{"product_id":"slippery-beast-a-true-crime-natural-history-with-eels-9781419765858","title":"Slippery Beast: A True Crime Natural History, with Eels","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"It's part natural history, part true crime, and buckets of slippery, slimy fun. You won't be able to put it down.\"--The Nature Conservancy\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eEllen Ruppel Shell's \u003ci\u003eSlippery Beast\u003c\/i\u003e is a fascinating account of a deeply mysterious creature--the eel--a thrilling saga of true crime, natural history, travel, and big business.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e What is it about eels? Depending on who you ask, they are a pest, a fascination, a threat, a pot of gold. What they are not is predictable. Eels emerged some 200 million years ago, weathered mass extinctions and continental shifts, and were once among the world's most abundant freshwater fish. But since the 1970s, their numbers have plummeted. Because eels--as unagi--are another thing: delicious. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eSlippery Beast\u003c\/i\u003e, journalist Ellen Ruppel Shell travels in the world of \"eel people,\" pursuing a burgeoning fascination with this mysterious and highly coveted creature. Despite centuries of study by celebrated thinkers from Aristotle to Leeuwenhoek to a young Sigmund Freud, much about eels remains unknown, including exactly how eels beget other eels. Eels cannot be bred reliably in captivity, and as a result, infant eels are unbelievably valuable. A pound of the tiny, translucent, bug-eyed \"elvers\" caught in the cold fresh waters of Maine can command $3,000 or more on the black market. Illegal trade in eels is an international scandal measured in billions of dollars every year. In Maine, federal investigators have risked their lives to bust poaching rings, including the notorious half-decade-long \"Operation Broken Glass.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Ruppel Shell follows the elusive eel from Maine to the Sargasso Sea and back, stalking riversides, fishing holes, laboratories, restaurants, courtrooms, and America's first commercial eel \"family farm,\" which just might upend the international market and save a state. This is an enthralling, globe-spanning look at an animal that you may never come to love, but which will never fail to astonish you, a miraculous creature that tells more about us than we can ever know about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrize winning journalist \u003cb\u003eEllen Ruppel Shell \u003c\/b\u003ehas contributed to scores of publications including \u003ci\u003eThe Smithsonian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eScientific American\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eScience\u003c\/i\u003e, the\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e. Professor Emeritus of science journalism at Boston University, she was a longtime contributing editor and correspondent to the \u003ci\u003eAtlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, and the author of four previous books, including \u003ci\u003eCheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Abrams Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50896602497298,"sku":"9781419765858","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5962ab16-3158-4163-8d4f-69c7e1da6d13.jpg?v=1738294652","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/slippery-beast-a-true-crime-natural-history-with-eels-9781419765858","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}