Visit from a scientist...

We were lucky enough on Thursday to have a visit from a scientist who is studying eels.  Mr Ray Farmer.  He knows soooooo much about eels and boy are they interesting!

Who ever knew that eels travel to Tonga to spawn and then the babies automatically know how to travel back to NZ when they are only a couple of centimetres long!  Not only that they go to the exact same stream their parent came from!  Amazing!  Nature is so cool.

  

There are 2 types of eels in NZ - the long and short finned eels.  Can you remember which one these pictures are showing?
The circle things on this diagram are showing the rings around their ear holes.  These tell you how old eels are.  The gaps between the circles tell yo if the water they live in is good quality - the closer together the circles the worse the water quality!
Can you remember how old they have to get to before they travel to Tonga?

This is a picture of a different type of eel trap called a Fyke.  It doesn't use bait and channels the eels into it when they hit the flat part of the net.  Mr Farmer lent us his Fyke so we can try it out!  Boy I can't wait for camp now!  Its going to be so much fun!