FRESH WATER EELS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3487, 11 January 1921, Page 45

FRESH WATER EELS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I read with much interest the letter about fresh-water eels by ' 'Old Pioneer of Koss” in your issue of December 7 last. Unfortunately I missed the Hon. G. M. Thomson’s article. I am sure Mr Thomson will be pleased to have any information bearing on the question, “How do eels breed,” which is. not yet satisfactorily solved. Strange thing that no one has put any of our fresh-water eels into salt water to see how they would fare, which would help to shed a ray of light on this question. I read once that in Britain the eels go 250 miles to sea to spawn, and the young eel is a larva the shape of a small leaf, and transparent, like a piece of jelly, but with two black dots for eyes. i suppose eels have been caught in nets at sea to prove this. Some years back I paid a short visit to an old friend in Temuka, Mr R. J. M’Callum, just at the time Mr Hayhurst turned the course of one of the streams into another channel to furnish motive power for his flourmill. The bed of this stream was covered with flat, waterwom stones perhaps 3in or 4-in square down to gravel size. There were also a number of rapidly-drying-up water-holes. Underneath the stones, in the damp, there were innumerable small live eels the size ot large pins. There was not the slightest doubt that they were eels, 'there were also some the size and thickness of a big bodkin, and some the thickness of a penholder. Also, in the water-holes, other sizes varying m thickness from a candle to a chair-leg, arid a fe>v 2)b and 3lb weight. There were none of them lampreys, Mr M’Callum and I being well enough acquainted with the latter, not to mistake them for eels. In Wanaka, a good many years ago, I once caught a lot of eels in the lake, and in the sound of one of them there was a tiny live cel about tin long. The stomachs of this lot were nearly empty and inflamed, and much congested with blood, and th 9 walls of them were much thicker than usual. The outside of the stomachs were nearly all covered with ulcers, in each of which there were a number of little eels the size of the one in the sound. Afterwards I caught two or three eels with full stomachs, and the walls of the latter were as thin as parchment, and it seemed to me there were the remains of ulcers. As regards an eel’s culinary qualifications, it is .not equal to the carl}- days. The earlytime rs remember with complacency the fine eating qualities of the eels in the lakes and big rivers. I have no knowledge of the last 1 years, but without doubt the large number of trout eating up all the feed will tell largely against the quality of the eel. Last January there was a very fine picnic on the banks of the Kakanui. One of the visitors brought some over-ripe eggs, and broke one and threw it into still water. In_ a few minutes a 121 b eel came slowly swimming along and began feeding on the egg, and was soon galled out. ’three or four more eggs brought out some small eels 31b to 41b weight, which wore also soon gaffed out. One of them the visitor kindly gave to me. When I skinned it I noticed that there was no row of fat on each side of the backbone in its inside. We are told this is the spawn, and there I forget how many million in a 61b eel. I had some of my eel m the not, but I bad to give it up, as it was tough and dry and tasteless, and I lot the cat have it for Christmas. This experience was the same with a 31b eel out of the Oarnaru Creek tlxe previous year. Six or eight years ago 1 caught a 14lb eel at Glenore in the month of March. It had only a little yellowish slime in tile stomach I nave awav the half, and had fried eel twice a dav for a week on the remainder. It. was a bit dry and hard, but eatable, but nothing like the flavour of the early-time eel The year after a 28d> eel was caught near the same place. Mv experience tolls me that the eel depends very largely for its food on land insects that fall into the water. The Kakanui eel’s stomach was quite full of the small brown beetle with a smooth back that lives underground. It also_ had mud in it, perhaps picked up while lifting the beetle off the bottom of the stream. A few days ago 1 saw some thousands of this beetle on the sea beach, being left there bv the receding tide. They were_ nearly all alive, and moving about, and ineffectually trying to fly. Doubtless they had flown out to sea and fallen in. During a period of 20 years I caught scores of eels* in Lake Wanaka and in the Upper Clutha River, and I have seen plenty others that have been caught, amounting to scores. It was only on rare occasions that there would be one 31b weight, the smallest sizes being about 6lb or.Blb weight, except that, on just one occasion, a message was sent to me that a neighbour caught a little eel about the size of a lizard. How the eel breeds still requires more explanation. -T am, etc.. Richard Non max. Mersey street, Oama.ru, January 5. 1921.