For the next 18 years, this Danish oceanographer trawled the coasts of four continents, hunting down increasingly tiny leptocephali.

在接下来的 18 年里，这位丹麦海洋学家在四大洲的海岸进行了拖网捕鱼，捕捉到越来越小的细鳞鱼。

Researchers were aware of leptocephali and glass eels, but no one guessed they were related to the elvers and yellow eels living hundreds of kilometers upstream.

研究人员知道细叶鳗和玻璃鳗，但没有人猜到它们与白叶鳗和黄鳗有关，后者生活在上游数百公里处。