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| NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
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Common Name: American eel
Taxonomy: available through 
Identification: Becker (1983); Page and Burr (1991); Etnier and Starnes (1993); McCosker (1989) presented a key to several Anguilla, including this species.
Size: 152 cm.
Native Range:
Marine, estuarine, and fresh water. Spawns in the Atlantic Ocean in the Sargasso Sea and ascends streams in North and South America. Atlantic, Great Lakes, Mississippi, and Gulf basins from Newfoundland to South Dakota and south to South America (Page and Burr 1991).
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Hawaii |
Caribbean |
Interactive maps: Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, Caribbean
Nonindigenous Occurrences: This species has been recorded from Lake Mead on the Colorado River, on the Arizona border (Minckley 1973). It was stocked on several occasions in Sacramento and San Francisco bays, California, in the late 1800s, apparently with no evidence of survival (Smith 1896; Shebley 1917; Shapovalov et al. 1981; McCosker 1989). A total of 13 specimens were collected in the San Francisco area during the period 1978 to 1984 (McCosker 1989; Williamson and Tabeta 1991). Specimens have been reported from the San Luis Valley, Conejos County, Colorado, where they escaped from an aquaculture facility (Zuckerman and Behnke 1986). Eels were stocked in the Calumet River south of Chicago, Illinois, in 1873 (Milner 1874b; Goode 1884). It was also reported to be established in several localities in Indiana in 1945 (Gerking 1945). Eels have been collected in Lake Michigan in Illinois and Indiana (Lee et al. 1980 et seq.). This species has been reported, but not likely established in Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior (Cudmore-Vokey and Crossman 2000). The species was accidentally introduced into the Elkhorn River near Omaha, Nebraska, in 1873, when a railroad car transporting East Coast fish to the West Coast lost its cargo to the river after a railroad bridge collapsed; all told, an estimated fifteen hundred eels from Martha's Vineyard and 40,000 from the Hudson River were released in the Elkhorn (Smith 1896). There are no subsequent records. Eels have been collected from Lake Mead on the Colorado River, Nevada (Minckley 1973). One American eel was collected in the Nolichucky River, North Carolina (Shute and Etnier 2000). In the late 1800s, Ohio received transplants of hundreds of thousands of eels (Trautman 1981). Introduced into Lake Erie in Ohio and Pennsylvania (Scott and Crossman 1973; Busch et al. 1977; Trautman 1980). Eels were stocked in Utah Lake and Salt Lake in Utah in the late 1800s, but soon disappeared (Popov and Low 1953; Sigler and Miller 1963). They were also stocked in the Fox River at Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1873 (Milner 1874b; Goode 1884).
Means of Introduction: Intentionally stocked in most locations; accidentally stocked in the Elkhorn River, Nebraska; escaped from an aquaculture facility in Colorado. Since 1874, there have been many shipments of A. rostrata from the eastern United States to California to stock rivers and for fish farming purposes (Williamson and Tabeta 1991). Eels caught in California waters during the 1970s and 1980s are believed to have been imported by Japanese or Chinese restaurants or by fish farms, and the eels either escaped or were released (McCosker 1989; Williamson and Tabeta 1991). In Texas and South Carolina eels were intentionally introduced for aquaculture and then escaped the aquaculture facility. Goode (1884) stated that captains of vessels on the Great Lakes commonly carried a tub of eels for food while on Lake Ontario. These eels were frequently thrown overboard when the crew tired of them or procured better fishes as the vessels sailed through the Great Lakes. Several thousand eels were stocked into rivers in Illinois draining into Lake Michigan and into a river near Eaton, Michigan (Goode 1884). They are also thought to have gained access to the upper Great Lakes through the Welland Canal (Scott and Crossman 1973). The first record from above Lake Ontario was from Lake Erie in 1844; the canal opened in 1829 (Trautman 1980).
Status: Possibly established in Indiana and Ohio; reported from Arizona, California, Colorado, and Nevada; extirpated from Nebraska and Utah. Present but uncommon in the upper Great Lakes (Becker 1983). Scott and Crossman (1973) listed them as uncommon in the lakes Erie, Huron, and Superior, with no mention of Lake Michigan. These individuals are ones that have migrated to the upper Great Lakes through the Welland Canal.
Impact of Introduction: Eels in Texas and South Carolina have been found to be infected with the Asian eel nematode Anguicolla crassus (M. Ray, personal communication). This parasite infests the swimbladder, causing retarded growth and maturation, and is fatal to a high percentage of eels. It has also been found to infect fin fish, with unknown consequences (R. Ward, personal communication). The nematode was originally known only in Japanese eels Anguilla japonica. As a result of transporting eels around the continent, it spread into European eel A. anguilla. It has now been found in our native American eel (Ray, personal communication). Undoubtedly it arrived in shipments of foreign eels and spread to the native eel. Impacts in other states are unknown.
Remarks:
An adult eel was captured from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, near Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, in 1964, but there is confusion surrounding its identify. The voucher specimen (SIO 64-219) is a skin only and was reported to be A. rostrata by Skinner (1971); however, the same specimen was reported as being either A. rostrata or A. anguilla by McCosker (1989), and as Anguilla sp. by Williamson and Tabeta (1991). Also see remarks under A. anguilla. Although not outside their native range, eels tentatively identified as this species have been used extensively for aquaculture in several areas, including Texas and South Carolina. The exact origin, and therefore positive identity of eels cultured in Texas has been somewhat uncertain. The Texas fish are believed to be native eels from the southeast coast, but there is a possibility that the fish actually may represent one of the foreign species, A. japonica or A. anguilla. Many of these eels escaped a southern Texas aquaculture facility into nearby Arroyo Colorado. In addition, before it was realized the eels from the Texas facility were infected with a parasite, Anguillicola crassus, live specimens were shipped to South Carolina (Ray, personal communication). Possibly escapees from South Carolina facilities, infected A. rostrata were captured later off the coast of South Carolina (Ray, personal communication). At least three American eels have been collected from Lake Superior on the Canadian side . These were likely ballast water introductions (Mandrak and Crossman 1992).
Voucher specimens: California (CAS 41042-45, 62246, 44056, 53928, 62206), Colorado (MSB, uncataloged (LDZ-50, 51, 86)), Texas (Texas Parks and Wildlife, Palacios).
Cooper, E. L. 1983. Fishes of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA.
Cudmore-Vokey, B. and E.J. Crossman. 2000. Checklists of the fish fauna of the Laurentian Great Lakes and their connecting channels.
Gerking, S. D. 1945. Distribution of the fishes of Indiana. Investigations of Indiana Lakes and Streams 3:1-137.
McCosker, J. E. 1989. Freshwater eels (family Anguillidae) in California: current conditions and future scenarios. California Fish and Game 75(1):4-10.
Minckley, W. L. 1973. Fishes of Arizona. Arizona Fish and Game Department. Sims Printing Company, Inc., Phoenix, AZ.
Page, L. M., and B. M. Burr. 1991. A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. The Peterson Field Guide Series, volume 42. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.
Popov, B. H., and J. B. Low. 1953. Game, fur animal, and fish introductions into Utah. Utah State Department of Fish and Game Publication 4, pp. 1-85.
Ray, M. - Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Austin, TX.
Shute, P.W. and D.A. Etnier. 2000. Southeastern fishes council regional reports - 2000. Region III - North-Central.
Sigler, F. F., and R. R. Miller. 1963. Fishes of Utah. Utah Department of Fish and Game, Salt Lake City, UT. 203 pp.
Skinner, J. E. 1971. Anguilla recorded from California. California Fish and Game 57(1):76-79.
Smith, H. M. 1896. A review of the history and results of the attempts to acclimatize fish and other water animals in the Pacific states. Pages 379-472 in Bulletin of the U.S. Fish Commission, Vol. XV, for 1895.
Trautman, M. B. 1981. The fishes of Ohio. Ohio State University Press, Columbus, OH.
Ward, R. - Texas Parks and Wildlife, Palacios, TX.
Williamson, G. R., and O. Tabeta. 1991. Search for Anguilla eels on the West Coast of North America and on the Aleutian and Hawaiian Islands. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology 38(3):315-317.
Zuckerman, L. D., and R. J. Behnke. 1986. Introduced fishes in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. Pages 435-452 in R. H. Stroud, editor. Fish culture in fisheries management. Proceedings of a symposium on the role of fish culture in fisheries management at Lake Ozark, MO, March 31-April 3, 1985. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.
Other Resources:
Distribution map in Illinois - ILNHS
FishBase Fact Sheet
Author: Pam Fuller and Leo Nico
Revision Date: 8/23/2004 Citation for this information:
Pam Fuller and Leo Nico. 2010. Anguilla rostrata. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=310.> Revision Date: 8/23/2004
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