Sanctuary’s New Eel Ladder Has First Customer

The eel ladder is installed in late March

The eel ladder is installed in late March. This photo was taken from the salt marsh.

Two weeks after it was first installed at the spillway between Silver Spring and the salt marsh, the sanctuary’s new eel ladder has been visited by the first of what we hope will be lots of eels.

The ladder is really a kind of shoot with water pumped down that entices young eels coming in from the ocean to swim up and into a holding pool. The pool is checked daily and any eels found there are removed and transferred to the fresh water of Silver Spring.

Water running down the shoot induces eels to swim up and into the holding pool.

Water running down the inner shoot induces eels to swim up and into the holding pool.

The young eel you can see in this video taken by science coordinator Mark Faherty is called a glass eel, one of the early stages of the animal’s complex life cycle.

The American eel population has dropped dramatically in the past 30 years in part because of obstacles, such as dams, that block or even kill them as they move between the Atlantic Ocean, where they breed and are born, to rivers and other freshwater bodies where they mature. Eel ladders are one attempt to make this passage a little easier. It will also give us a way to monitor the sanctuary’s eel population.

Eels are captured here and relocated to Silver Spring on the other side of the Goose Pond Trail

Eels are captured here and relocated to Silver Spring on the other side of the Goose Pond Trail

Since the eel ladder holding pool is checked daily, we are hoping to get  volunteers to help us with monitoring. Although it may not be as active in summer, the ladder will no doubt be a curiosity for the dozens of day campers who will pass by it every day as they make their way out to the beach. To learn more about the eel ladder project, read Bob Prescott’s April Director’s Message.

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