Freshwater Eel

[ktomlinson]

I am going to imagine that this is not true! It would wreck the premise of the television series!

Lol, I hear you! Why let facts stand in the way of a good story

 

[reefseal]

I don't think there is much chance of that eel getting back to the ocean unless someone takes it there. The pond is a Kettle hole the only way water gets in that pond is from precipitation. There are no brooks or streams that connect to the ocean and there is no chance of any underground river or cave since the whole of the Cape is just one big topsoil covered sand bar.

Eels can make the migration back to ocean over land. They are the slimiest creatures and can over wet terrain make it back over

 

[porgyhunter]

Reefseal is right...Like I said they go way inland...I caught a lot as a kid way up in Northeast Conn

 

[ivakdiver]

We used to see American eel in the lower Niagara River, especially at night. Not so common now.
My wife had an interesting experience while doing a bottle dive near Kingston, Ontario about 35 years ago. Very low viz and soft bottom. Picked up what she thought was a bicycle handlebars- actually an eel. She practically walked on the water back to shore.

 

[Mr.X]

I took care of a very tame American eel in a aquarium. He was a nifty little guy with fair amount of personality.

 

[ivakdiver]

Another eel experience that we encountered on the East coast of Canada -Cape Breton Highlands. My wife and I were snorkelling in a small bay, and followed a small stream that entered the bay. She observed that it looked like the entire bottom of the stream, where it entered the bay, was moving. It was! Migrating eels swimming from the sea upstream. She climbed on my back that time.

 

[porgyhunter]

Hey Ivak.....Sounds like Eels aren't one of your wifes favorite critters....Bet she would really dislike "wolfeels" or Congereels...they got some teeth

 

[augk]

Well now that Black bears have been sighted in West Barnstable and the only way they got there was over the bridge or swam the canal. I guess an eel could have slithered through he woods over the highway.

 

[guggie]

I have seen eels measuring several feet long in West Hill pond in northwest Connecticut, arguably the cleanest lake in CT. That lake is located at 930' elevation. It is spring fed and drains via a stream that eventually finds its way to the Farmington river, which then drains into to the CT river after going over several dams along the way. I find it hard to believe that these eels migrate to the ocean and back up to the lake.

 

[mfalco]

I got a possible answer this weekend. I was talking to my brother and told him I saw the eel. Without me mentioning that I was wondering how it got there, he told me a possible way.

He said several years the owner of a dive shop in Hyannis told him that they burrow into the ground and into the water table. From there they travel to water that is connected to the ocean.

It sounds a little far fetched to me, but I've heard of stranger things. Any scientist out there that could enlighten us?