What is the life cycle of the American eel?
American eels are the only catadromous fish in the Bay, meaning that they live in fresh water and move to the ocean to spawn. • In October, sexually mature eels swim from streams and rivers down the Bay and out to the Sargasso Sea, an area of the Atlantic Ocean west of the Bahamas. In January, the eels spawn there, then die. • Tiny eel larvae drift in the ocean for about nine to 12 months, during which time they transform from larvae to the “glass eel” stage. Ocean currents carry the transparent glass eels thousands of miles to the U.S. coast. • Before entering the Bay, the glass eels become pigmented. These brown eels, called elvers, are only about 2.4 inches long. Some elvers stay in the Bay, but most continue to swim many miles up the Bay’s rivers and streams to fresh water. • After a few months the elvers transform into the adult “yellow eel” stage. There they remain for the majority of their lives, until they reach sexual maturity and return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die. O
