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Creation98 t1_isnv637 wrote

Salmon too. Salmon will go back to the exact same area they were born in to spawn, making the journey hundreds of miles. It’s amazing

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typed_this_now t1_isnwqvc wrote

I have this weird recollection of watching horse racing on tv as a kid. The race was at Randwick - not far from where the eels migrate from. It was pissing down with rain and the camera panned to Eels swimming across the track or just outside the track and the announcer explained where they were headed. Haven’t thought about it years. Totally forgot the eels did this.

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malseraph t1_iso32ep wrote

This phenomenon is also used as a major plot point in Robin Hobb's "Realm of the Elderlings" book series in a really interesting way. It starts it in her second series, "The Liveship Traders".

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DarkMuret t1_iso4xkg wrote

Eels make crazy journeys

American Eels can live as far inland as Minnesota, but will make a journey all the way to offshore Atlantic Ocean to spawn and die, and then their offspring make the trip back.

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papaloco t1_iso6rdx wrote

Replying to Creation98 (#122,923)

That is true, but salmon are very high maintenance compared to eels. You won't see salmon wriggling across a wet meadow to get to a river. Or live in a stagnant pool of algae infested sludge. Eels are bad ass.

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skccsk t1_isoe87d wrote

Sorry guys, I can't make the trip. I'm feeling eel.

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bsptc t1_isog80a wrote

Seems unnecessary.

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blue-cube t1_isokmvr wrote

http://honisoit.com/2016/02/the-victoria-park-eels-have-been-to-new-caledonia/

>When the majestic majority make it to the salt water of the ocean, receptors in their nose trigger a physiological change that puts a butterfly’s life cycle to shame. Their eyes enlarge and undergo pigment transformation to improve their vision in the salt water, their pectoral fins enlarge to rub more salt in Nemo’s wounds, their stomach disintegrates as they have eaten their last duckling and their anus shrivels to keep the salt water at bay.

>The fasting, owl-eyed, anus-less eels then swim along the coast of Australia, up past the northern tip of New Zealand (where their Kiwi brethren join them), and further north to the southern tip of New Caledonia, presumably using the slip stream of P&O cruises the whole 2,020km. Here, the females release millions of eggs, of which an estimated one per cent survive.

>The adult eels—after doing everything in their power to give their spawn a tropical life free from Sydney Uni college kids pissing in their pond—die.

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innovatao t1_isoqnud wrote

So Eels live in remote lake A. They ALL go to sea way over there. They all spawn the next generation. Then ALL the adults die. All of them. The kids then all travel back to the same Remote Lake A (TM)??? Do they leave a brochure to tell them where their ancestral home is? A map? That's so cool but wow.

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BeeztheBoss t1_isorqm8 wrote

Uh they cross a sea not an entire ocean. Way to oversell.

−6

OpticGd t1_isot5zq wrote

But how do they KNOW!

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Rudolfius t1_isotouk wrote

But how do they know where to go without someone showing them? It's ridiculous and amazing.

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justiceguy216 t1_isowk2b wrote

And here I am complaining that they added another rotary to my daily commute.

1

DamonFields t1_isox3w5 wrote

Why don’t they just stay home and skip the dying part?

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isle_say t1_isoxzxh wrote

There are turtles that make long journeys to mate and it is because they have been doing it for so long that continental drift has created a massive gap they now have to cross. BTW where is New Caledonia?

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zylstrar t1_isoya7u wrote

Through the (Pacific) ocean, across the (Coral) sea.

...But still amazing.

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Legal_Eagle_1155 t1_isp03ev wrote

So do monarch butterflies, salmon, and people who peaked in highschool

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LurkingMcLurkerface t1_isp0c12 wrote

Replying to papaloco (#123,545)

Pulled a 4 foot eel out of the waste water treatment system in work, it either came in as an egg and survived the many chemical treatments and pumps at the front end of the works to get into the waste water treatment stage, where it survived more chemicals and lived long enough to find food and grow to adult size

Or

A 4 foot eel survived being drawn through a number of high speed pumps with impellers spinning at over 1400rpm at a few different stages and then settled down for a nap in the waste water treatment plant.

Both are massively impressive

We released it back to the river, hopefully its doing much better being out of a water treatment facility!!

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JoshSidekick t1_isp33ta wrote

How did they get there before storm drains?

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Person5_ t1_isp68oz wrote

Are you saying I shouldn't go night fishing in those eel infested waters?

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SlightlyAlmighty t1_ispafww wrote

Replying to LurkingMcLurkerface (#125,368)

That's a nice paradox: if it was spawned there, its offsprings will return. Sadly, the cycle will end then, between the blades of the impellers.

If it had passed through the blades unharmed, maybe more will come to spawn there, repeating the cycle and creating more impeller resistant and junk eating eels that would mutate and fight the ninja turtles

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snoweel t1_ispdpw8 wrote

How do the newborn eels know where to go back?

1

Caterpillar89 t1_ispe05d wrote

Replying to Creation98 (#122,923)

Salmon travel thousands upon thousands of miles from where their parents spawn them to feed and grow in the oceans and then return to the same ocean. There are salmon that are born in rivers in California and go all the way up into the polar regions to feed. Some salmon can travel over 2,000 miles per year.

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GGtesla t1_isped6d wrote

We us to rent boats sometimes as a family thing with my dad, from memory it was at lakes enterence victoria , i remember leaving my fishing line in the water just for fun and as we were in bed going to sleep i heard the line spooling into the water , so i jump up and start reeling it in.

Out of the water comes the head of a giant fucking eel , im trying to think of an everyday object that was about the same diameter, maybe like american fire hydrant or large bread plate , the thing was fucking massive i pulled like 3 feet of it out of the water before the line snapped , all this at night half naked, dad was like im glad you didnt pull that fucking thing into the boat

Anyway that was the end of me swiming there thats for fucking sure

Im not sure if it was one of these but it was this size and this is also lakes enterence

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/fisherman-in-victorias-gippsland-region-catches-ancient-shark-with-300-teeth/news-story/9cd7019cb856e1f80bd7c90c91d0bab5

At least something very similar to this fucker

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CynicalBrik t1_ispgvga wrote

Replying to innovatao (#124,790)

To my knowledge eels do not home in on the same specific body of fresh water. They are pretty much like the inverse salmon. Eels home in on one spesific area of the sea and then the offspring goes to some freshwater body that they can get to, disregarding where their parents came from. Salmon on the other hand go to the sea and chill around anywhere where there is food and then return to fresh water to the spesific area where they were born.

E: a word

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Flamin_Yon t1_isphunx wrote

Replying to Creation98 (#122,923)

This is completely different in my opinion as the newly hatched eels have literally never been to their destination before and aren't following a river. They just somehow know where to go.

Salmon on the other hand hatch and follow the flow of the river to the ocean, then return to spawn.

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Ichthyologist t1_ispi3mf wrote

Always nice to see some quality eel content!

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WriggleNightbug t1_ispkcu6 wrote

I have a friend who works on similar programs in the UK. They are rebuilding marshland near Cambridge and building grates/sluices to let eels swim through and back to their spawning points. It's cool stuff!

Edit: Eels and other similar fish often have a mild electrical sense, it's like echolation but zaps instead of yelling. Some can use their zaps like a taser but most are just using it to know where they are: https://dwazoo.com/animal/electric-eel/

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batweenerpopemobile t1_ispklq4 wrote

Replying to JoshSidekick (#125,544)

There were probably just nice little rivers, streams and small tributaries previously. When we pave over areas to build up, we cap all of the streams in pipes and bury them, routing all of the runoff into them. I expect it was something like this.

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RestlessARBIT3R t1_ispokki wrote

Eels are catadromous. They spawn in saltwater, then journey to freshwater to mature. Salmon are anadromous. They spawn in freshwater then journey to saltwater to mature

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Chess01 t1_ispsuqj wrote

Crazy argument for genetic memory

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PA2SK t1_isptby0 wrote

They don't swim "across the ocean". New Caledonia is about 750 miles off the coast of Australia. The eels swim maybe 1,200 miles. That's comparable to what salmon do. It's plenty impressive without trying to make it sound like they cross the Pacific.

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SoHiHello t1_isptpu2 wrote

That sounds like laying eggs in the lake with extra steps.

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pop_em5 t1_ispxhow wrote

More eels, more eels. Give it up now!

Bonus doots for who gets this reference

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TheGrubins t1_isq3sil wrote

Eels in Australia also lose the footy grand final

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Q8D t1_isq8q40 wrote

Replying to killdeer03 (#126,289)

Anyway, like I was sayin', eel is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, eel-kabobs, eel creole, eel gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried.

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RedSonGamble t1_isq8rwr wrote

Why don’t they just use escalators?

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sux9000 t1_isqf67r wrote

Eels up inside ya Findin an entrance where they can..

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DocMcMoth t1_isqmjl4 wrote

Wait, did we finally figure out how eels mate? Or was it just one specific species we didn't know the complete lifecycle of?

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tsgram t1_isqq4dr wrote

Up the Eels #Parradise

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colormeruby t1_isqtjxb wrote

Sounds like monarch butterflies. Pretty cool.

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JordanRodkey t1_isqzkry wrote

Eels used to do this all the time in North America, at least until the Europeans ate them until they were extinc.

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PandaMomentum t1_isqzrud wrote

Replying to Flamin_Yon (#126,375)

Monarch butterflies do this too -- the migration from Mexico to the US and back takes multiple generations. It's the great grandkids that show up in the same forest in Mexico each year. Genetically encoded somehow.

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Genji_sama t1_isr8t2o wrote

Y tho? Just do it in the lake bruh

0

RDub3685 t1_isrc41j wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#124,986)

Freshwater eels. They're catadromous. Which is the opposite of what salmon do, anadromous. American eels are born in the Sargasso sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and then migrate up rivers and streams to mature. They eventually migrate again to the middle of the ocean to spawn and die.

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technollama__ t1_isrcsez wrote

we still don't know how eels breed. such a crazy fact to me.

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jerudy t1_isrj3ru wrote

Replying to innovatao (#124,790)

Not remote lakes though, the interest in this story locally is bc these eels are well known inhabitants of the mini wetlands in major city parks in Sydney like Centennial Park and Victoria Park.

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princhester t1_isrjows wrote

It's not just a particular lake. It's eels from every freshwater lake and stream, on the Eastern seaboard.

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OlafEriksen t1_iss8rvg wrote

Replying to svladcjelli42 (#125,083)

Almost true, as some eels in the Pacific Ocean breed around New Caledonia :

>The spawning takes place in extremely deep tropical water in an ocean
trench, which can be up to 10 kilometres deep and is found at the edge
of the ocean shelf surrounding New Caledonia. (Source)

They still travel hundreds to thousands of km to breed, but not in the Saragossa Sea.

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