any experts on american eel?

I started a post in the New England forum about eels. Unfortunately none of us are experts. Any scientists out there that have studied them?

I've studied them quite a bit. What would you like to know?

How do they get from a pond with no connection to the ocean, to the ocean to breed?

I've been told that the borrow into the ground, and travel through the water table. Is that true?

mfalco:

How do they get from a pond with no connection to the ocean, to the ocean to breed?

I've been told that the borrow into the ground, and travel through the water table. Is that true?

Click to expand...

Since all American Eel breeding takes place in the ocean there must have been some connection between the pond and streams that eventually lead to the ocesn. These waterways may have been seasonally temporary, shallow, and more marsh than river, but they had to be there for the adult eels to be present in the pond. Eels will also move short distances across damp land areas. Amazing creatures.

The water in a water table is not swimable freestanding water. It is essentially ground saturation which only pools when the soil is removed. They can provide no oxygen and no true pathway. Underground waterways exist, especially in limestone base rock, and there frequently are direct connections to the sea in these areas. Some Mexican cenotes are an example. These kinds of things do not exist in sandy Cape Cod.

I have very happy memories of Mashpee, Gay Head, and my Wampanoag friends, back in my long ago undergrad days. An old GF of mine woked in the lobster hatchery on the Vinyard.