American Eel abundance: recent trends in southeastern Pennsylvania

The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is a migratory species that spawns in the Atlantic, but spends most of its life in the streams, rivers, estuaries, and lakes of eastern North America. As they move from marine to estuarine and freshwater habitats, the eels transform from transparent glass eels to pigmented juveniles (elvers) and then to sexually immature adults called yellow eels. They spend a many as 20 years in this yellow-phase: feeding and growing until they're ready to return to the ocean to spawn.

It's important to understand the status and population trends of this commercially and ecologically significant species. The goals of this study is to re-sample historically-sampled sites to provide quantitative comparisons of abundance, and to assess eel abundance upstream and downstream of potential migration blocks (e.g., dams) in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Introduction | Methods | Eel Status Sites | Results | Discussion