NATURAL WONDERS

THE OVERKILL OF NATURE

Rex Burress

Federal Environmental Species Act protection on the American eel is being proposed to list them as threatened.

Although eels are found largely along the Atlantic coast, over-harvesting through the lack of adequate regulations and 80 percent habitat loss due largely to dam blockage of their migratory route, has driven the long, slick, fish to an all-time low, again rearing the ugly head of extinction.

The eel fishery market has been driven by the high demand for elvers, or baby eels, in Asia that raise them to maturity for food, including sushi. The price has risen from $100 a pound to $2,100 a pound, stressing the existence of all eel species. Maine is the main source of American eel elvers, but many Atlantic states harvest older eels. If you've ever seen an eel, which is a rare sight on the west coast, you will wonder who could eat such a slimy, snake-like, creature called a fish!

We are reminded of other roads to extinction for certain animals, led by the unbelievable loss of the passenger pigeon in the early 1900's. Their numbers were so staggeringly high that no one could believe that the beautiful bird could become extinct. Migrations occurred in the Mississippi Valley that were so vast their flight would blacken the sky for three days, as reported by bird-man John James Audubon. The weight of them roosting would break tree limbs. They were dynamited and fed to hogs by the barrel. Within a few years the last one died in a zoo in 1914.

Even though there is some natural decline among certain species that fail to adapt to changing circumstances, the extinction and endangered lists for animals, and plants, are far too long in the short time of 400 years. The dire deal is largely caused by displacement of wildlife habitats due to human occupation. Since year 1600, about 905 species have become extinct, and about 16,928 endangered. Is it inevitable that wildlife loses out because of the necessity for human living places? This applies especially to large animals that need more space to hunt and forage.

Why save the eel, or the whale, when they are not part of most people's lives? John Muir reflected on the issue when he replied to the question of why was poison oak ever created. He said: “Like most other things not apparently useful to man, poison oak has few friends, and the question, “Why was it made?” goes on and on with never a guess that first of all it might have been made for itself...the universe would be incomplete without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful eyes and knowledge.”

William Mott, former director of National Parks, also spoke on the value of saving species. He advocated that some tiny organism might supply the genes to cure diseases in the future. So Save the Species!

The story of the eel is quite remarkable. There are about 800 species of various kinds of eels worldwide, but only the freshwater American eel and the nearly extinct European eel have a reversed migratory route involving the Sargasso Sea breeding site. Instead of going from salt water to fresh for egg-laying, like the anadromous salmon, American and European eels make a long journey from inland to the ocean, involving strange transformations, from eggs to a tiny drifting larvae to a transparent, leaf-shaped baby elver, to a yellow stage upon reaching inland waters [where they may live 25 years and grow to 6 feet], to the final silver stage on the return-to-the-sea spawning before dying! This process wasn't known until 1922.

There are no freshwater eels on the west coast of America, as even the blood sucking lamprey eel is not a true eel. Eels do not live in the Eel River in Northern California! The river was named for the lamprey, caught in large numbers by the Native Americans for food. What! Eat an eel? I am told they are excellent. We also have two species of lampreys mostly in the lower Feather River, although seldom seen.

“If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. What befalls the Earth befalls the sons of Earth.” --Chief Seattle