Definitely wasn't a gar, it was swimming with an undulating motion,
snake-like, on its' own, over about 15 feet of water.

Didn't know we had pipefish here Derek, btw I have seen eels in a park in
Melbourne taking bread intended for ducks off the top on a blazing hot
afternoon, quite amazing.

Jim.

"Derek.Moody" wrote in message
...
In article m,
URL:mailto:[email protected]. wrote:
On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 18:43:18 +0100, "Derek.Moody"
wrote:

In article , Jim Murray
wrote:
Wondering what it was I seen yesterday in a small harbour just South
of
Dublin:- around 18 inches long, eel-shaped fish swimming along at the
surface(surely couldn't be an eel...?), would've sworn it was a grass
snake
if it had been a few dozen miles further East;0) Any ideas...?

I could have been an eel. More likely a launce (greater sandeel) or if
it
was very thin, a pipefish.

Or it could have been a needle fish;
http://www.newmex.com/platinum/data/...eedlefish.html

We usually call them garfish over here. Yes it could have been a gar but
although long and thin they are not really eel-shaped and not usually
confused with them. Although flexible their motion is much stiffer than
that of an eel and the bill is frequently obvious. There are several
other
possible candidates but none of them really likely.

Cheerio,

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