August 30, 2017 — Eels are now descending out of the rivers all along the Gulf of Maine and every large prey fish in the ocean is waiting for them like kids looking for the ice cream truck. For the next few weeks fishermen will find that using eels for bait will be the key to landing those 50-inch stripers that are fueling up for their run south in October and November.
The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is still a bit of a mystery among those that have spent a life time studying their life cycle. They are one of the few life forms that migrate from fresh water to the ocean to spawn in a process described as catadromous. They are also facultative which means they can live in a variety of environments such as fresh water rivers and lakes or salty oceans.
Although Aristotle thought they were created in the mud of streams and Pliny the Elder believed that they were formed from scales scraped off on rocks, it was not until 1922 that Danish biologist Johannes Schmidt discovered that eels spawned in the Sargasso Sea. He confirmed his discovery in a two year ocean voyage between 1928-30. What is one of the weird facts of science is that while we know they spawn in the Sargasso Sea because the eggs and young have been observed there, no adult eel has ever been found in the area.