Life History
Like the other anguillids, short-finned eels are catadromous: when they reach maturity, they stop feeding and migrate downstream to the sea, then anything up to three or four thousand kilometres to a spawning ground in deep water somewhere in the Coral Sea off New Caledonia. The larvae recruit from the sea as small adults when they lack colour and are transparent-giving them the name 'glass eel'. Tropical species have year round recruitment where temperate species such as the short-finned eel have strong seasonal recruitment. Recent evidence that has utilised analytical microchemical techniques in eel otoliths has suggested that eels are facultatively catadromous rather than obligatory. Discrete populations of ocean and estuarine residents exist, that very rarely enter freshwater.
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