Pacific Shortfin Eel

Interesting Info

• The Pacific Shortfin Eel is found across northern Australia, from Queensland to the Northern Territory and into New Guinea and Pacific islands.
• Its body is dark olive-brown to almost black above and paler below, with a relatively shorter dorsal fin than the similar Longfin Eel.
• This eel is catadromous, it lives in freshwater rivers for most of its life but migrates to the open Pacific Ocean to spawn.
• These glass eels enter estuaries and rivers, where they become elvers, then eventually mature into adults.
• Pacific Shortfin Eels feed on insects, crustaceans, molluscs, and small fish, usually hunting at night.
• They are secretive by day, hiding in mud burrows, logs, or under rocks, then emerging after dark to feed.
• They are often found in billabongs, floodplain creeks, and slow-flowing streams.
• Indigenous communities have long valued eels as a food source, catching them in traps or by hand from billabongs and creeks.
• Breeding has never been observed directly, but adults are believed to spawn in the deep waters of the western Pacific, thousands of kilometres from the rivers where they grew up.
• After spawning, adults die — their one great migration marks the end of their life. The tiny, leaf-shaped larvae, called leptocephali, drift with ocean currents for months before metamorphosing into small, transparent glass eels.
• These glass eels enter estuaries and rivers, where they become elvers, then eventually mature into adults.
• The lifespan is typically 10–15 years, though some individuals may live longer before making their final ocean journey.