RE: Electric Eel: Reasons why they can't shock themselves, and their bio-mimetic potentials.
An electric eel charges up in 50 milliseconds and that's so little a time to have an electric effect on its body. More also, the amount of charge released by the fish is very small. so, by releasing such a little amount of current in such a little time won't have any severe effect on the fish.
Secondly, most of the energy released by the eel is already dissolved into the water surrounding. So, it can't harm any of the fish's vital organs such as the heart and the nervous system.
Let's say that an eel decided to electrocute a man, I presumed the time spend for it to equip itself with electricity is quite significant which would depend on how long a person would hold the eel. Would that damage the eel too? Because if it releases small current for a significant amount of time, the eel would be electrocuted by its own electricity too, right?
@conficker, the electric eel would have already charged up before it attacks and that takes between 20-50 milli second. But, do you think such a time is significant enough to evade its attack?
Secondly, the electric current discharged by the eel can't damage itself just like I've explained to @synick above. Though the time taken for the discharge is small, so also the current but the voltage is high enough to cause severe harm to a man. An electric eel can generate a voltage up to 500V.
Thirdly, the only way an electric eel can get electrocuted is either if it bends its body such that the head touches the tail while generating current (which I've explained in the post above) or if it were to shock an animal while holding it in its mouth (all which are very unlikely and never been heard of, lol)
You can also read up my introductory post on an electric eel
Thanks.