Ray Klingaman, age 9, of Williamsport, PA
What is the life story of the common eel
Served with parsley sauce, the meat of the slippery eel is very good to eat. For ages, it has been trapped and caught in streams and creeks and muddy ponds. Yet no one could ever shut off a backwater and farm the slippery fellow for market, You could keep a batch of pet eels in perfect surroundings. But they would never grow up and have children though they might live in captivity for fifty years,
This mystery baffled people for ages. No one knew how a baby eel got born. Naturally, there were some wild guesses. Some said the earth made them full grown from the mud, Some said they developed from horse hairs fallen into the water, Fantastic? But not as fascinating as the truth which came to light some seventy‑five years ago.
All our slippery eel in every pond and creek were born far out to sea. They were cradled in or near the Sargasso Sea a few hundred miles southwest of Bermuda The eels that find their way over Europe were cradled in the same general area: Throughout the world there are about 16 of these eel cousins that follow the same life history. Life for them begins in the deep waters of warm, cool or tropical oceans. Then they make their way to fresh water. Unfortunately there are no eel breeding grounds in the Eastern Pacific ocean. Hence, there are no grown up eels in the streams and ponds along our western shore.
Our American eel gets only as far as it can travel from the Atlantic. This is quite a distance, but not over the Rockies, Life for the American eels begins in the warm weedy waters of the Sargasso, Countless millions of eggs are left floating in the watery breeding grounds. Many eggs are eaten by hungry fishes. Those that hatch look like tiny willow leaves made of cellophane. These baby eels, unseen by man 100 years ago, have been given the fancy name leptocephalus larvae, The waters teem with them and many end up as fish food.
The rest start the long, hazardous journey towards land, In eighteen months they arrive off shores looking like two‑inch eels, though still transparent. Now they turn dark and become elvers all ready to cope with the rivers streams and‑ponds.
The male eels stay in the brackish water of tidal rivers and never grow longer than eighteen inches. The females make their way inland for hundreds and hundreds of miles. These slippery ladies can ever travel overland from stream to pond. This they do under the safety of darkness. Like all fish they have water breathing gills. They also have special skins for dissolving oxygen from the air.
The females are the eels we find in our streams and ponds. They enjoy life, feeding and growing in the fresh water until they are twelve years old, Then comes the call which must be obeyed$ the call back to the distant breeding grounds for a new generation. The long journey down streams and rivers and over land is timed for a rendezvous with the sea in the fall, Countless adults males and females, then make their way hundreds of miles through the Atlantic. When the eggs are layed the life of the parents is over. They perish there right where they themselves were born in the warm weedy waters of the Sargasso Sea.