Anguilla rostrata

Biological Overview

Habitat
Freshwater and brackish

Diet
They eat fish, insects, worms, snails, clams, and crabs.

Role in Ecosystem
American eels are serving as both predators and prey.

Behavior
American eels are nocturnal, catadromous fish that live in freshwater and spawn in the ocean.

Human Impact

Overfishing has reduced populations in some areas, especially where eels are caught for food or for the glass eel trade.
Dams and barriers block their migration between rivers and the ocean, making it hard for juveniles to move upstream and adults to return to the sea to spawn. Pollution may affect how they live in certain places. Eels are affected by chemicals polluting their habitat causing them to breath in the chemicals people are dropping in the water.

Creative Exploration

At dusk, the American eel slipped through the water like a ribbon of shadow. No one saw her leave the muddy river, only the quiet swish she left behind. She had traveled through seaweed, under bridges, and past sleeping towns, carrying an old map written somewhere deep inside her. She moved without sound.

Dominic Tasker, Greyson Pippen, Paxton Crespo

Book 7