September 14, 2018 — Eels are misunderstood. They’re slimy, and look like snakes—which makes it hard for some people to stomach the thought of eating one. But eel season is ramping up at one D.C. restaurant, where the chef serves eels caught in the Chesapeake Bay.
Despite appearances, eels are fish. They breathe through gills and move using two long fins—one down their back, another along their bellies. The two fins meet to form a tail.
At seafood restaurant The Salt Line, chef Kyle Bailey is happy to offer eel to his customers.
“They’re available and I want that because I don’t see them anywhere else in town, and I would love to be the restaurant that has something that nobody else has,” Bailey says.
Bailey’s eels are provided by Dock-to-Dish, a restaurant-supported fishery program in the Washington region. It allows chefs to trace the fish they get back to the dock they came from.
From Kent Island To The Salt Line
The source of Bailey’s eels is Troy Wilkins, one of a couple dozen Maryland watermen who fish for the elusive, yet abundant creatures on a regular basis.
On a recent day, Wilkins sails near Kent Island in the Chesapeake. From the deck of his fishing boat, the Misty Tango, he reels in two-foot-long, cylindrical eel pots one by one.
Several pots come up nearly full. Roughly a dozen greenish-brown eels writhe around inside the pots before he dumps them into a holding tank. Some eels are big, about four or five pounds. Others are much smaller.