Quarry Curiosities, Part 5 - The American Eel

Or, "Life below the Surface "

 

An eel in the cattail roots, Halibut Point quarry

Occasionally during the summer an impressively large American eel Anguilla rostrata could be seen at the edge of the quarry, seemingly three inches thick and three feet long. It moved with the unhurried drift of a contented apex creature in its domain--well fed and unchallenged.

 

Minnows silhouetted against the eel

Interestingly the small fish in the neighborhood were at this moment at least unperturbed by its presence.
 

Eric Hutchins setting an eel trap

Eric Hutchins joined our quarry fish survey with a particular interest in eels. He has studied them extensively not only for their fascinating life story but as a bellwether of habitat health for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

And what do the landlocked waters of Halibut Point have to do with ocean species? Eels, like salmon and shad, spend part of their lives at sea and part in freshwater rivers and lakes. They depend on free movement through utterly different environments at different points in their lives. Waterway obstructions, pollution, and other significant alterations have decimated eel migrations in recent years.
 

Map of eel migration*

In a cycle opposite from salmon and shad, eels are born at sea but spend most of their lives maturing in fresh water. To accomplish this the larvae, which develop from eggs spawned only in the Sargasso Sea south of Bermuda, disperse by currents along the continental shelf through a series of metamorphoses that finally result in transparent glass eels swimming landward toward estuaries. There they take on pigment to match the mud and become 2.6-3.9 inch elvers determined to move upstream where they may spend twenty-five years or more reaching sexual maturity for the trip back to the Sargasso Sea to mate, spawn, and expire. That journey requires remarkable physical changes and stamina as well as uncanny navigational ability.
 

Looking up a damp swale toward the quarry.
Note the water-loving loosestrife blooming at the left.

During spring rains elvers can wriggle up damp swales and even across lawns in search of habitable water bodies. Presumably they reached the Halibut Point quarry in this manner, crossing under the perimeter road through seepage points in the grout that underlies the road in certain places and serves as a sluiceway for excess water flowing down to the sea.

 

Elvers moving upstream
Tim Watts photo

Because they inhabit both fresh and salt water environments American eels are a Trust Resource of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which incorporates the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) where Eric is a Habitat Restoration Specialist.
 

Eric Hutchins netting an eel
Courtesy photo

Eric combines the personality, subject matter, and outdoor setting that appeal to environmental students. "Eels are also a really good species for education and stewardship. I can almost always find one between May and September and they are durable and safe to handle. Kids like to see them."
 

Rockport school student
Courtesy photo

Eric monitoring an elver trap at Millbrook Park with
the Marine Science and Aquaculture class from
Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School

The current tally at Millbrook Park, Rockport

Eric has a team of volunteers checking the elver trap daily. "I'm getting a lot of new people interested in the aquatic environment through catching this fish. Tomorrow I'm scheduled to give a program to the Pigeon Cove Sewing Circle. Who would have ever thought a sewing circle would care about eels? I'll see if I can get a live one to bring in."

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*Detail of the map shown in the brochure "American Eels: Restoring a Vanishing Resource in the Gulf of Maine" produced by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, 2007. It is available online at www.gulfofmaine.org.