OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 



159 



nually in the Aquarium, where the process of 

 incubation in glass jars always attracts the at- 

 tention of visitors. As handled in the fish 

 hatcheries, a large specimen may yield 300,000 

 eggs. 



The Pike-perch belongs to the family of 

 Perches, although its form is suggestive of the 

 Pikes. 



While it is regarded in the markets as one of 

 the best of our food-fishes and great numbers 

 are taken in the net fisheries, it is highly ap- 

 preciated as a game fish. The angler does not 

 find it a difficult fish to catch and a large one 

 will resist like a good-sized Pickerel. 



The Sanger, also called Sand Pike, is a little 

 brother to the Pike-perch, resembling it in 

 general appearance, but in size does not aver- 

 age more than a quarter of its weight. It has 

 a smaller eye, a more pointed head, and a lighter 

 coloration. It has much the same geographic 

 distribution. 



The Sanger is a good food and game fish, 

 taken in trolling and casting both with bait and 

 lure. In some localities great numbers are taken 

 with seines. 



COMMON EEL (Anguilla rostrata) 



(For illustration sec Color Plate XVI) 



The annual catch of Eels for market along 

 the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida ex- 

 ceeds 3,000,000 pounds and is worth $250,000. 



Recently three barges, each more than loO 

 feet long and 12 feet wide, arrived at New York 

 from Quebec with 165,000 pounds of live Eels. 

 They were towed by way of the St. Lawrence 

 River, Lake Champlain, and Hudson River and 

 were 13 days in transit. The barges are virtu- 

 ally well-boats, or live cars, the bottoms con- 

 sisting of heavy slats, with narrow spaces be- 

 tween to provide abundant circulation of water. 



The catch is made when Eels are working to- 

 ward salt water and is heaviest during the dark 

 of the moon. The season is from July to 

 October, inclusive. 



Large as is the catch of Eels in America, it is 

 vastly more so in Europe. 



Science knows more to-day about the Eel than 

 it did some years ago, and the missing chapters 

 in the Eel's life history have been supplied 

 through modern deep-sea investigations rather 

 than in the study of fresh or coastal waters, 

 where Eels are more in evidence. 



Unlike Salmon, Shad, and other fishes which 

 enter fresh waters to spawn, the Eel descends 

 streams at maturity to spawn far at sea. The 

 young Eels — three inches or so in length, called 

 Elvers — that enter fresh waters in the spring in 

 large numbers, and are continually working up- 

 stream, have always been known, but the stages 

 of growth between the egg and the Elver were 

 not. 



These stages in which the baby Eel does not 

 exceed three inches in length are of compara- 

 tively recent discovery. We here find it a thin, 

 flattened creature, so transparent that ordinary 

 print may be clearly read through its body. 

 When first described in this stage it was called 

 Lcptoceplialiis and was not known to be the 

 Common Eel. 



These transparent larval Eels found at sea 



in the winter months grow rapidly, and by the 

 end of the year are more than two inches long, 

 when they begin to transform. By the time 

 they are a year old they begin to appear in 

 fresh-water streams as Elvers or young Eels 

 about three inches long. 



Investigations by the Danish vessel Dana in 

 1920 and 1921 have shown that the early larval 

 stages of both the American and the European 

 ICel are found only in the western Atlantic, at 

 depths of 600 to 900 feet. The former spawns 

 to the south and southwest of the Bermuda 

 Islands, the latter to the south and southeast. 



While the American Eel begins to enter fresh 

 water at the age of a year, the European species 

 remains three years in the larval stages before 

 it appears as the Elver in European streams. 

 The latter, like the American Eel, goes far in- 

 land, even passing within the borders of Swit- 

 zerland. 



Females with ripe eggs are unknown, the 

 millions of undeveloped eggs carried by each 

 female not developing while the Eels linger in 

 fresh or coastal waters. 



The Eels found far inland are always females 

 and remain in fresh water for several years. It 

 is only when tending toward reproductive ma- 

 turity that they seek the sea. Male Eels remain 

 in tidal waters and are smaller and less in evi- 

 dence. Like females, they do not reach breed- 

 ing maturity until they have passed to sea. 



The great bulk of the Eel catch everywhere 

 consists of females. It is said that all the Eels 

 captured in the great Quebec fishery are females 

 moving downstream. 



The Eel catch in the St. Lawrence River is 

 derived from Eels belonging to that river and its 

 tributaries, including Lake Ontario. The Lake 

 Ontario catch of Eels in 1899 exceeded 123,000 

 pounds. The annual yield of all the other Great 

 Lakes combined seldom exceeds 2,000 pounds, 

 the Falls of Niagara constituting an impassable 

 barrier to all kinds of fishes. 



Enormous numbers of young Eels gather be- 

 low Niagara in spring and summer, but there 

 is no evidence that they ever pass farther by 

 that route. 



The Eels of the upper Lakes may pass up by 

 way of the Erie and Welland canals. It may be 

 that limited numbers of Eels in the Mississippi 

 River find means of passing into the Great 

 Lakes. Whether Eels inhabited these lakes be- 

 fore the construction of canals, the writer is 

 not informed. The fishery statistics at hand 

 contain no records of Eels in Lake Superior. 



Eels enter all American streams from the St. 

 Lawrence River to the Gulf of Mexico. It is 

 only the young Eels that move upstream. Adults 

 move downstream and do not return. Both 

 males and females die at sea after the first and 

 only breeding season in their lives. The Eel is 

 very prolific, each female producing from 

 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 eggs. 



Eels are taken in other ways than with nets. 

 "Bobbing for Eels" is done with worms strung 

 on thread, which looped in a small bunch make 

 a bait very attractive to Eels. They are also 

 taken in small wire traps called eelpots, by eel- 

 spears, and are even taken by digging and spear- 

 ing in the mud, where they bury themselves in 

 winter. 



