Southern Shortfin Eel

Interesting Info

• The Southern Shortfin Eel is found across southeastern Australia, including Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and parts of New South Wales, and also occurs in New Zealand and some Pacific islands.
• The body is dark olive to brown on top and silvery below, with a relatively short dorsal fin compared to the Longfin Eel (Anguilla reinhardtii).
• Like all true eels, it is catadromous, spending its life in freshwater before migrating to the sea to spawn.
• Adults are nocturnal hunters, feeding on insects, worms, molluscs, yabbies, and small fish.
• During the day they hide in mud burrows, under rocks, or among vegetation, emerging at night to forage.
• They are powerful swimmers and can even cross damp land during rainy nights to reach new waterways.
• Breeding occurs far offshore in the Coral Sea. Adults swim thousands of kilometres from southern rivers to deep ocean waters, where they spawn once and then die.
• Their eggs hatch into tiny, transparent leaf-shaped larvae (leptocephali) that drift with ocean currents for up to 12 months before transforming into glass eels near the coast.
• Glass eels enter estuaries, turning into elvers as they move upriver, often travelling hundreds of kilometres inland into streams, lakes, and wetlands.
• The Southern Shortfin Eel has been an important food source for Aboriginal peoples for thousands of years, especially in Victoria and Tasmania, where traditional eel traps and stone weirs are still celebrated today.
• The lifespan is usually 12–20 years, though some individuals have been recorded at over 30 years before making their spawning run.