It’s eel season. While their smoky eely goodness is available in Japanese restaurants year-round, traditionally Aboriginal groups recognised March as eel season. It’s about now that fat eels begin their spawning migration (so are more easily trapped).

Something of an enigma to Western science, much about eels remains unknown. We know they spend their lives in fresh water. And that somewhere between 10 and 20 years of age their bellies turn silver and their eyes widen – sure signs they’re about to embark on a 3000km migration to spawn. It’s thought they travel to somewhere between Samoa and the Coral Sea, where they spawn, then die. The baby eels are then transported back to the estuaries on currents. During this year-long journey, their physiology changes: adapting from salt to fresh water, they eat for the first time and, importantly, take become male or female.