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A slippery, yellow-green ocean creature born in cold, deep water northeast of the Caribbean has been pulled from the Kansas River — 3,500 miles from its birthplace.
The American eel, which can grow up to five feet long and can weigh up to 16 pounds, is native to the US, but is rarely seen this deep inland in modern times.
The eel lands on the US shores typically within the first year of its life as a small, transparent ‘glass eel,’ before growing to adulthood roaming and feeding along coastal rivers and nearby ocean habitats.
This specimen was the first American eel documented in Kansas since 2015.
But even the rare American eel that has managed to plunge this deep into US inland river systems will make their way back to the Atlantic to spawn — which American eels do as their final act, with females releasing millions of eggs before they die.
‘Many mysteries remain with the American eel’s life history,’ experts said. ‘They arrive to our coast with their sex undetermined and years later swim offshore for over a thousand miles to spawn once and die.’
The rare inland American eel specimen was discovered by an invasive species team sent out by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), who has been tasked with halting the spread of Asian silver and bighead carp, among other duties.
But the crew took a break to pose with the eel, the first confirmed sighting of its kind in Kansas in nearly a decade.
The KDWP Aquatic Invasive Species Crew found the eel while conducting a sampling operation near Kaw Point, a river bend where the Kansas and Missouri River conjoin.
‘Every American Eel that is found in Kansas began its journey in the Sargasso Sea and will have traveled approximately 3,500 miles,’ the wildlife agency noted.
The Sargasso Sea, unlike most landlocked seas, is a portion of the Atlantic Ocean enveloped by a large spinning set of four currents.
This calm blue region, where American eels journey to spawn and then end their lives, is named after its unique brown Sargassum seaweed.
This death drive to reproduce is a feature these eels share with Pacific Salmon and similar species that marine biologists and fish experts describe as ‘semelparous.’
‘Spawning occurs during late winter and early spring,’ as KDWP posted to its Facebook page, which included a map of ‘the long, strenuous swim route this eel, and all other American Eels in Kansas had to endure to arrive here.’
While the American eel was once a more common sight in coastal rivers up and down the western hemisphere, from Greenland to Brazil, and as far inland as Minnesota and even central New Mexico, dam projects have halted its migrations.
The species, which can live up to 25 years, is now most frequently seen only in oceans and river systems closer to the coastline.
Nevertheless, as the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries explains on its fact page, the American eel still occupies ‘the most diverse habitats among fish in North America.’
‘They live along the entire eastern seaboard,’ the group continued, ‘ranging from Canada through the Caribbean, and south to French Guiana in South America.’
In 2015, a local recreational fisherman angling in the Kansas River’s Bowersock Dam was the last person to pull a confirmed American eel specimen in the state.
As a then-fisheries section chief for the KDWP, Doug Nygren, explained it at the time, this specimen was a little over two feet long (30 inches): a typical size for adult American eels.
‘This eel made a long journey,’ Nygren said, ‘from the Atlantic Ocean, through the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi, took a turn at St. Louis to enter the Missouri River, and another turn to go up the Kansas River to the Bowersock Dam.’
This article by Matthew Phelan was first published by The Daily Mail on 7 June 2024. Lead Image: Last year, Jace Tunnell of the University of Texas Marine Institute identified what would be an American eel at much closer to its maximum size of five feet for his #Beachcombing series. This specimen, either a King Snake Eel or an American Eel, was found off the Gulf of Mexico.
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