Eel

Last Saturday, there was a fish survey around the archipelago of NYC and further up the Hudson River. I was too lazy to go to any of the events, but that morning I did run across an interesting sample. On Bush Terminal Park’s pier was this half-an-eel. American Eel Anguilla rostrata, the adult stage of their very interesting life-cycle.Was it deposited there by Osprey, Great Blue Heron, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Egret, either of the Night-herons? All are possibilities (all were seen in the area on Saturday, although the brief glimpse of a juvenile Night-heron wasn’t enough to fix its species). The smaller of these predators will definitely grab things that look to us to be too large for them, and sometimes quite successfully swallow them whole. That clearly didn’t happen here.