Habitat: Ocean, rivers, and estuaries on the Atlantic coast
Diet: Fish, aquatic insects, and crustaceans
Fun Facts:
- Eels’ slime coat, a defense mechanism common to all fishes used to protect themselves from predators and bacteria, is particularly thick, making them nearly impossible to grip
- Adult American eels live at the bottom of the Hudson River and its tributaries year-round, but those of breeding age will leave to spawn in the Sargasso Sea, hundreds of miles off-shore in the mid-Atlantic.
- Males mature at a smaller size; any eel over 2 feet is likely female
- Eels can survive out of water for long periods of time; sometimes slithering across land to travel between water bodies