The American Eel has a wide distribution on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean from Venezuela to Greenland and Iceland, including the Sargasso Sea (southern North Atlantic). Its native Canadian range includes all fresh water, estuaries and coastal marine waters that are accessible to the Atlantic Ocean, from Niagara Falls in the Great Lakes up to the mid-Labrador coast.

The American Eel is a freshwater eel with a long, serpentine body with deeply embedded scales. It has a terminal mouth with thick lips and the lower jaw slightly longer than the upper jaw. It has several rows of small teeth on the jaws and roof of the mouth. Juveniles are called "yellow eels" because they are yellow to greenish-brown on the belly and dark on the back. Adults (silver eels) are grey with a white or cream-coloured belly. Adult females may reach up to 1 m in length; males are smaller at less than 0.4 m. Eels are a long-lived species, living around 20 years or more.