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HOW DO EELS SWIMS?

It is a good question. The studies are still going on . This is a report of the studies conducted. Eels undulate a larger portion of their bodies while swimming than many other fishes, but the hydrodynamic consequences of this swimming mode are poorly understood.Like the eel, after which this mode is named, anguilliform swimmers tend to be elongate with little or no narrowing at the caudal peduncle. This lack of separation between the body and tail is particularly extreme in eels, in which the dorsal, caudal and anal fins effectively form a continuous median fin (Helfman et al., 1997.Based on their observations, they hypothesized that eels' wakes consist of unlinked vortex rings moving laterally. They proposed that eels shed two separate same-sign vortices because of a lag between the stop/start vortex,  shed when the tail changes direction, and centers of rotation that progress down the body, which they termed `proto-vortices'.
 Eels are fish of the order Anguilliformes. Anguilliformes propel themselves underwater by a means known as anguilliform swimming. Unlike other fish, an eel's body is elongated and flexible from end to end. When it swims, it moves in a series of waves. These waves cause each segment of the eel's body to oscillate in a figure-eight loop. This movement causes the eel to propel forward in the water. Anguilliform swimming differentiates the eel from other fish -- the eel swims with its entire body, while other fish mostly use just the tail-end.


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