Hello, my name is Erica. I’m a long-finned eel.

I’ve had an amazing journey to get to the

stream where I live now…

Would you believe that I swam to New Zealand all

the way from Tonga?!

Australia

New Zealand

North America

Asia

FijiSamoa

Tonga Cook Islands

TahitiNew Caledoni

a

The Equator

I hatched from a tiny egg off the coast of Tonga

30 years ago

Would you like to see my baby

pictures?

Me as a tiny egg!

Some of my 20 million brothers and sisters have

already hatched

Hatching out of my egg

Here I am 3 days old Don’t I look cute?!

When I was this age I was called a larvae

My 1st birthday! Can you see my

tiny teeth?

A photo of me as a larvae – swimming through the warm waters of the Pacific

Ocean

There I am!

I didn’t want to stay floating around in the ocean forever, so decided to swim to New Zealand to find where my mum and dad had come

from.

1½ years old - the day I finally

reached the New Zealand

coast

At this age everyone called me a glass eel I wonder why?

I remember that the water tasted different here – a mixture of saltwater from the sea and

freshwater from a river. I had reached an estuary.

I raced up the river with lots of other glass eels as soon as the

sun had set.

2 years old. At this age I was called an elver. My skin has

turned darker to help me hide on the streambed.

There were lots of obstacles to cross on my way up the river – like this

weir, and lots of predators who tried to eat me – can you spot two in this

picture?

I had to get pretty

good at climbing

over rocks!

And even up walls!

Image References

Slide 1: Stream. Sarah Stead, Rodney District Council

Slide 2&8: Maps adapted from http://www.beautifulpacific.com/

Slide 3-5: Eel eggs and larvae. Mahurangi Technical Institute

Slide 6: Eel larvae. Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska Fairbanks

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6160000/newsid_6168800/6168873.stm

Slide 7: Coral Reef. Microsoft Clip Art

Slide 9: Glass eel – Nelson Boustead, NIWA

Slide 10: Estuary. Doc Searls, Wikipedia

Slide 11-12: Glass eels. Tim Watts.

From http://www.glooskapandthefrog.org/eel%20challenge.htm

Slide 13: Warkworth Weir. D O’Neil, Wikipedia.

Slide 14-15: Glass eels. Tim Watts. From http://www.glooskapandthefrog.org/eel%20challenge.htm