Re: Would a lightning strike kill an electric eel?

Electric eels generate electricity in their special electric organs in 
order to stun or kill prey.  The amount of electricity they generate at any 
one time is only on the order of tens of volts, so this amount of 
electricity does not harm them.  A lightning strike, however, generates 
millions of volts - much more than a single eel.  Although I am not aware 
of any experiments that might have directly addressed your question, I 
think it is fair to expect that a direct lightning strike on an electric 
eel would be more than the eel could tolerate and would probably be 
sufficient to kill it.  

Remember though that, unlike you or I, eels live in water instead of land 
and would therefore probably never be the target of a direct lightning 
strike.  The large volume of water that an eel lives in would greatly limit 
the amount of electricity an eel might receive from even a nearby lightning 
strike.  But again I am unaware of any experiments that might have tested 
the effect of a lightning strike on an eel in a large volume of water or 
its natural habitat.