# Identify This Mysterious Beast **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292 "2008-09-12T16:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/1 "2008-09-12T16:04:54Z")
Thanks to the miracle of the internet, I’ve been listening to old episodes of BBC Radio’s “News Quiz”. In particular, I’ve been listening to stuff from 1998. In a recent episode (March 28th of that year) they were using a word I couldn’t identify to refer to some sort of animal I couldn’t recognize. The news story was of a fishmonger, Mr. Hogg, who was attacked in his shop by a ten-stone (this may be an exaggeration, I’m not sure) creature which they referred to as a “Congareel” or some similar sounding word. I’ve never heard of this animal. Several alternate spellings have turned up nothing in Google, and searching for the news story in question has been no help either. Does anyone know what a “Congareel” is? Or possibly a Congrille, Kongreel, Conkril, etc… I feel I’m missing a joke. Thanks, thwartme ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/2 "2008-09-12T16:08:52Z")
Conger eel, They do get pretty damn big. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/3 "2008-09-12T16:13:08Z")
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=Wkq&resnum=0&q=conger+eel&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image\_result\_group&resnum=1&ct=title](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=Wkq&resnum=0&q=conger+eel&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title) And look like this. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/4 "2008-09-12T16:18:58Z")
That’s one big damned eel… ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/5 "2008-09-12T16:42:25Z")
> [@thwartme](#): > > The news story was of a fishmonger, Mr. Hogg, who was attacked in his shop by a ten-stone (this may be an exaggeration, I’m not sure) creature [This site](http://www.electricbluefishing.com/electric_blue_sub_menu/british_congerclub.htm) has info about the weights of various conger eels caught; 10 stone (140 lbs) would seem to be more than any line-caught one, but well within the maximum for a commercially (I assume they mean with a net) caught one. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/6 "2008-09-12T16:46:35Z")
Any truth to the rumor that the Congareel in question was heard to exclaim, _“I’m not quite dead yet!”_? ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/7 "2008-09-12T17:24:04Z")
I thought a “Conga Reel” was a curious type of hybrid South American-Irish social dance. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-mysterious-beast/463292/8 "2008-09-12T17:54:50Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Any truth to the rumor that the Congareel in question was heard to exclaim, _“I’m not quite dead yet!”_? Hah! Did you hear the episode? Part of the story was that Mr. Hogg thought it was dead, and was rather surprised when, upon approaching it, it tried to attack him. Thanks so much for the responses. You know, trying it as two words never occurred to me. Silly. Thanks, thwartme