Aussies stunned by 'amazing' but brutal find in river
Easily two metres in length, long-finned eels like this one are actually found right up and down the Australian east coast.
A huge long-finned eel that turned up cut in half in a picturesque Australian inlet could have "easily been 20 years old or even up to 60", an experienced fisheries scientist says, with the animal likely over two metres in length when it was fully intact.
The incredible photo surfaced on social media earlier this week after the enormous fish was apparently found in the Wagonga Inlet in Narooma, on the NSW South Coast. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, eel expert and scientist Lachland McKinnon said colloquially, the animals are known as Congo eels — although that's not correct as that name refers to its own species, which don't get anywhere near as big.
He said this long-finned eel was likely nearing the end of its lifespan, or may have already been dead when it was bitten in half, "in a pretty clean cut" that was likely made by a bull shark, known to frequent inlets.
'Amazing' find in inlet on NSW South Coast
Given the eel's immense size, it would've made for a big target for predators.
"They're spread from the tip of Cape York, right through to the northern-eastern tip of Tassie, and probably Western Port Bay in Victoria. Pretty much all up the east coast of Australia," McKinnon told Yahoo. "It does look like a very, very big eel — even for a long fin, that's quite large.
"I would think it's probably going to be 15 kilos-plus, at least. The biggest I've seen in the flesh was 14 kilos. But I know they've been caught up to 18 or 20, so they certainly do get that big."
McKinnon said the animals live in fresh water throughout much of their life and then as older adults, swim out to sea to spawn. This takes place only once, at depths in excess of 1,000 metres, and afterwards they die.
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The fascinating yet mysterious life of eels
Interestingly, nobody on earth has ever seen this process, McKinnon added, with much of eels' reproduction habits in general still very much a mystery even to the most informed scientists.
"So when whatever triggers the migration for spawning happens, they then stop feeding," he explained. "Usually the eels are very fat by then because they'd been storing up fat over their whole life, and that's their energy source to sustain their migration up to the spawning ground.
"We don't even know really where that is. We think it's in the Coral Sea somewhere, or South Pacific somewhere, you know, places like Vanuatu — but no one really knows for sure.
Given the size of the eel found at Narooma, which was "very fat", McKinnon said it may have been in its final life stages, making preparations for its last journey.
"As they're getting ready to migrate, so when they're still in the freshwater systems, their stomach actually shrinks and they stop feeding and can't process food anymore. What this does is allows space in their body for the growth of their gonads, so the ovaries for the female fish and and the testes for the male fish.
"And these become quite big and full of eggs and sperm, basically. Then they use all of their bodily resources to swim up to the spawning area. And then once they spawn, it's just this last, final exhaustive act and they're completely shot. They're completely spent and will die."
Despite their "terrifying" appearance — as some online put it — the eels pose no danger to humans and are relatively docile until disturbed.
On social media, people shared their shock at the incredible find. "That's amazing," one person said. "I'm never swimming there again!" another exclaimed. "I’d say a shark bit it in half. They get a few good ones up in the inlet," suggested a third.
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