An American eel is examined in the laboratory of the Muncie Sanitary District's Bureau of Water Quality. Photo provided.
When fisheries biologist Drew Holloway applied electric current to the White River during a fish population survey last week, he was as stunned as the fish.
"An American eel in the White River is a once-in-a-lifetime catch," said Holloway, an employee of the city sanitary district's bureau of water quality. "We've been doing this since 1972, and this was only the second time we've seen an American eel in that whole time frame."
Holloway believes the eel traveled from the Sargasso Sea, south of Bermuda in the North Atlantic Ocean, up the Mississippi River to the Ohio River to the Wabash River to ...