04-06-2007, 11:25 AM
Eels getting a lift from plant owner
By Robert Miller
THE NEWS-TIMES
The Housatonic River has trout, bald eagles and great blue herons.
It needs eels.
![[Image: photo.php?photofile=eels.TIF.jpg&dat...wwidth=250]](http://www.newstimes.com/photo.php?photofile=eels.TIF.jpg&date=2007-04-02&newwidth=250)
About the eel
The American eel Anguilla rostrata: [ul] [li]Is found along the Atlantic Ocean coastline from Venezuela to the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes. [li]Females can grow as long as 5 feet; males as long as 2 feet. [li]Can live five years or longer. [li]Are generalists who can adapt to many habitats and feed on a large variety of invertebrates. [li]Are an excellent food source for fish such as trout and bass. [li]Breed in the Sargasso Sea, north of the Bahamas. [li]Live their lives in brackish estuaries and fresh water rivers. [li]Change colors in their life -- from transparent, to greenish-brown, silver and black. [li]When sexually mature, swim back to the Sargasso Sea, spawn and die. [li]Gulf Stream carries 2-inch long larvae north. [/li][/ul]Toward that end, First Light -- the company that now owns the five hydroelectric power plants on the Housatonic -- is working with state and federal agencies to build a temporary eel ladder on the Stevenson Dam, which forms Lake Zoar.
Eventually, it will build similar structures on its other dams, allowing the American eel to loop and writhe up river back as far north as Massachusetts.
The move to restore eels will replenish the Housatonic's biodiversity -- before there were dams on the river, there were eels, filling a useful niche in the river's ecosystem.
It is also part of a national effort on the East Coast to restore eel populations, which in recent years have declined so rapidly that the eel has been considered for inclusion on the nation's endangered species list.
"Historically, we know they used to be in the river," Steven Gephard, supervising fisheries biologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection, said last week. "They used to catch big ones, as far north as Lakeville. And we know there are none above the dams now."
The work, Gephard said, is part of the DEP's attempts to allow migrating fish species to swim the full length of the river -- something the DEP has already done on the Connecticut and Thames rivers.![[Image: adlog.php?bannerid=938&clientid=7107...2d6d375a9f]](http://www.newstimeslive.com/admanager/adlog.php?bannerid=938&clientid=710773&zoneid=170&source=&block=0&capping=0&cb=abce61fc9c2621c595b23d2d6d375a9f)
But those rivers had existing, albeit dwindling, eel populations, he said. The Housatonic has none above the Stevenson and Shepaug dams.
"It's overdue," he said of the work on the Housatonic.
Bringing eels to the Housatonic would be a good thing, said Alex Haro, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Turners Falls, Mass. Where they do exist, they benefit the environment, as both predator and prey.
"Eels play a significant part in the environment," said Haro, who studies migrating -- anadromous -- fish like salmon and shad.
"They're generalists -- they feed on a great variety of invertebrates. And they're food for just about anything that can eat them -- bass, trout pickerel. Herons love them. Cormorants love them. Let's say they go down easily," Haro said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services wants First Light to complete the eel ladder as soon as possible. Its predecessor -- Northeast Generation Services -- built a temporary eel passageway on the Stevenson Dam in 2005.
But the October floods of that year forced NGS to open the gates at the dam, and the torrents destroyed the passageway.
Melissa Grader, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's New England field office in Sunderland, Mass., wrote to Robert Gates, First Light's station manager, in February, urging the company to work with the DEP and her office so the ladder can be in place when eels start moving upstream in the summer.
"We'd like it in place as soon as possible," Grader said.
Gates said he hopes to talk to state and federal officials this week to get everyone to agree on a final plan.
He's considering two options. First Light could build a ramp with a bucket at the end. Migrating eels would crawl up the ramp and fall into the bucket.
First Light or DEP staff would then use a cable system to haul the bucket to the top of the dam, measure and count the catch, then throw the eels into Lake Zoar.
But Gates said First Light wants to make sure the migrating eels are congregating on the eastern side of the dam, on the Oxford shoreline. First Light could build a more temporary eel passageway there, utilizing existing structures.
This would also involve capturing the eels in a bucket, then driving with them up to Lake Zoar and releasing them.
Whatever the method, the eels would have a new place to colonize --the 11-mile, 975-acre Lake Zoar. Grader said it would take several years for eels to establish themselves in Zoar.
"There's so much habitat for them," she said.
First Light has until 2014 to build a permanent eel passageway over the Stevenson Dam. It then has another 10 years, until 2024, to do the same on the Shepaug and Bulls Bridge dams.
Eventually, Gephard said, eels might make their way up the intake pipes at the Rocky River dam into Candlewood Lake.
"It wouldn't surprise me," he said. "Other big lakes in Connecticut have eels."
The fertilized eggs hatch and the 2-inch-long larvae drift slowly north for about a year, until they reach coastal waters. Then they become glass eels -- small, transparent eels that migrate into estuaries.
After feeding, their bodies develop pigment and they begin to mature. Then, they're known as yellow eels, although their color ranges from yellow-brown to green-brown.
Some adult eels stay put in estuary waters. Most of those are males, which can grow to about 2 feet long. Others, mostly female, move upstream in rivers. If they escape predators, they can live to be 20 years old and grow to be 5 feet long.
Unlike fish, they don't need a full current to swim in -- they can actually live outside the water as they crawl over rocks and up spillways. In the winter, they can burrow into the mud to survive the cold.
"They're excellent migrators," said Gephard of the eels.
In their final stage, they change colors again -- gray back, white belly and silver-bronze on their flanks. Then they're sexually mature. They begin swimming south, down river, out into the ocean and back to the Sargasso Sea. There, they spawn and die.
Because of many factors -- dams, water pollution, overfishing -- American eel populations have seriously declined. In 1985, commercial fishing landed 1.8 million pounds of eel. By 2002, that number was down to about 650,000 pounds.
In 2006, however, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to list eels as a threatened or endangered species. After a year's study, the service concluded that while eels have declined in some places, their populations are thriving in others.
The DEP's Gephard said its work and the work of other fishery agencies on the East Coast are being done in part to address those declines.
"Maybe what we're doing on the Housatonic and other rivers in the state now will mean the fish and wildlife service won't have to list eels in the future," he said.
[/b][/b]
[li]Contact Robert Miller
at [url "mailto:bmiller@newstimes.com"]bmiller@newstimes.com[/url] [/li]
[signature]
By Robert Miller
THE NEWS-TIMES
The Housatonic River has trout, bald eagles and great blue herons.
It needs eels.
About the eel
The American eel Anguilla rostrata: [ul] [li]Is found along the Atlantic Ocean coastline from Venezuela to the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes. [li]Females can grow as long as 5 feet; males as long as 2 feet. [li]Can live five years or longer. [li]Are generalists who can adapt to many habitats and feed on a large variety of invertebrates. [li]Are an excellent food source for fish such as trout and bass. [li]Breed in the Sargasso Sea, north of the Bahamas. [li]Live their lives in brackish estuaries and fresh water rivers. [li]Change colors in their life -- from transparent, to greenish-brown, silver and black. [li]When sexually mature, swim back to the Sargasso Sea, spawn and die. [li]Gulf Stream carries 2-inch long larvae north. [/li][/ul]Toward that end, First Light -- the company that now owns the five hydroelectric power plants on the Housatonic -- is working with state and federal agencies to build a temporary eel ladder on the Stevenson Dam, which forms Lake Zoar.
Eventually, it will build similar structures on its other dams, allowing the American eel to loop and writhe up river back as far north as Massachusetts.
The move to restore eels will replenish the Housatonic's biodiversity -- before there were dams on the river, there were eels, filling a useful niche in the river's ecosystem.
It is also part of a national effort on the East Coast to restore eel populations, which in recent years have declined so rapidly that the eel has been considered for inclusion on the nation's endangered species list.
"Historically, we know they used to be in the river," Steven Gephard, supervising fisheries biologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection, said last week. "They used to catch big ones, as far north as Lakeville. And we know there are none above the dams now."
The work, Gephard said, is part of the DEP's attempts to allow migrating fish species to swim the full length of the river -- something the DEP has already done on the Connecticut and Thames rivers.
But those rivers had existing, albeit dwindling, eel populations, he said. The Housatonic has none above the Stevenson and Shepaug dams.
"It's overdue," he said of the work on the Housatonic.
Bringing eels to the Housatonic would be a good thing, said Alex Haro, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Turners Falls, Mass. Where they do exist, they benefit the environment, as both predator and prey.
"Eels play a significant part in the environment," said Haro, who studies migrating -- anadromous -- fish like salmon and shad.
"They're generalists -- they feed on a great variety of invertebrates. And they're food for just about anything that can eat them -- bass, trout pickerel. Herons love them. Cormorants love them. Let's say they go down easily," Haro said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services wants First Light to complete the eel ladder as soon as possible. Its predecessor -- Northeast Generation Services -- built a temporary eel passageway on the Stevenson Dam in 2005.
But the October floods of that year forced NGS to open the gates at the dam, and the torrents destroyed the passageway.
Melissa Grader, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's New England field office in Sunderland, Mass., wrote to Robert Gates, First Light's station manager, in February, urging the company to work with the DEP and her office so the ladder can be in place when eels start moving upstream in the summer.
"We'd like it in place as soon as possible," Grader said.
Gates said he hopes to talk to state and federal officials this week to get everyone to agree on a final plan.
He's considering two options. First Light could build a ramp with a bucket at the end. Migrating eels would crawl up the ramp and fall into the bucket.
First Light or DEP staff would then use a cable system to haul the bucket to the top of the dam, measure and count the catch, then throw the eels into Lake Zoar.
But Gates said First Light wants to make sure the migrating eels are congregating on the eastern side of the dam, on the Oxford shoreline. First Light could build a more temporary eel passageway there, utilizing existing structures.
This would also involve capturing the eels in a bucket, then driving with them up to Lake Zoar and releasing them.
Whatever the method, the eels would have a new place to colonize --the 11-mile, 975-acre Lake Zoar. Grader said it would take several years for eels to establish themselves in Zoar.
"There's so much habitat for them," she said.
First Light has until 2014 to build a permanent eel passageway over the Stevenson Dam. It then has another 10 years, until 2024, to do the same on the Shepaug and Bulls Bridge dams.
Eventually, Gephard said, eels might make their way up the intake pipes at the Rocky River dam into Candlewood Lake.
"It wouldn't surprise me," he said. "Other big lakes in Connecticut have eels."
The fertilized eggs hatch and the 2-inch-long larvae drift slowly north for about a year, until they reach coastal waters. Then they become glass eels -- small, transparent eels that migrate into estuaries.
After feeding, their bodies develop pigment and they begin to mature. Then, they're known as yellow eels, although their color ranges from yellow-brown to green-brown.
Some adult eels stay put in estuary waters. Most of those are males, which can grow to about 2 feet long. Others, mostly female, move upstream in rivers. If they escape predators, they can live to be 20 years old and grow to be 5 feet long.
Unlike fish, they don't need a full current to swim in -- they can actually live outside the water as they crawl over rocks and up spillways. In the winter, they can burrow into the mud to survive the cold.
"They're excellent migrators," said Gephard of the eels.
In their final stage, they change colors again -- gray back, white belly and silver-bronze on their flanks. Then they're sexually mature. They begin swimming south, down river, out into the ocean and back to the Sargasso Sea. There, they spawn and die.
Because of many factors -- dams, water pollution, overfishing -- American eel populations have seriously declined. In 1985, commercial fishing landed 1.8 million pounds of eel. By 2002, that number was down to about 650,000 pounds.
In 2006, however, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to list eels as a threatened or endangered species. After a year's study, the service concluded that while eels have declined in some places, their populations are thriving in others.
The DEP's Gephard said its work and the work of other fishery agencies on the East Coast are being done in part to address those declines.
"Maybe what we're doing on the Housatonic and other rivers in the state now will mean the fish and wildlife service won't have to list eels in the future," he said.
[/b][/b]
[li]Contact Robert Miller
at [url "mailto:bmiller@newstimes.com"]bmiller@newstimes.com[/url] [/li]
[signature]