American Eel

Common name(s): American Eel

Scientific name: Anguilla rostrata

Diet

Juvenile American Eels are known as elvers. They eat crustaceans, invertebrates, small fish, and smaller eels. Adult American eels, both breeding and non-breeding, are opportunistic feeders, meaning they will eat any food available to them. They are considered carnivorous, with a diet including fish, frogs, insects, and dead organisms. Adult eels often fall prey to larger fish and fish-eating birds such as gulls, eagles, and ospreys prey on the American eel. The biggest threat to juvenile eels is other grown eels.

Habitat(Mirco and Macro)

In general, American Eels live in freshwater and saltwater along the coast and move into rivers and streams. American eels are the only species of freshwater eels found in North America. They live along the Atlantic coastline from Venezuela to Greenland and Iceland. Eels can also be found in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River. Some elvers stay in brackish waters and some go to inland streams before coming back to the sea to spawn.

Spawning

Eels are catadromous, meaning they live in freshwater rivers and spawn in the ocean. In October, sexually mature eels swim out of the bay to the Sargasso Sea, an area of the Atlantic Ocean east of the Bahamas. In January, the eels spawn there, then die. After the eggs hatch, young eels drift inland with ocean currents into streams, rivers, and lakes for over 3,700 miles. This journey may take many years. Young eels stay in freshwater until they reach maturity, between 10 to 25 years, before migrating back to the Sargasso Sea. The American Eel is an endangered species as overfishing continues and the American eel population continues to rapidly decrease.

Returning to the Megunticook

In order to return to the Megunticook, the American Eels need a way to get past the dams. Most fish ladders and fishways were designed for Atlantic Salmon, sometimes for Shad or Alewife, but most are not suitable for passing eels. This means that in order to restore eels to the Megunticook the dams would have to be removed.