The spring migration of shad, herring, and eel was once a harbinger of the season on rivers and creeks throughout the Inland Bays, but spawning runs have drastically declined. The construction of dams on our waterways to supply power to mills of our area’s past, presents a unique issue today.
Dams represent an obstruction to spawning runs of key species in the Indian River. There are 8 such dams in the Inland Bays drainage system.
American eels spend their lives in both the freshwater streams and ponds and in the brackish waters of our bays. Eels exit the bays in the fall and travel to the Sargasso Sea, an area roughly between Bermuda and the Caribbean, where they breed and subsequently die. The fertilized eggs drift with the ocean currents back toward the Atlantic Coast developing along the way.
A glass eel captured at the base of a local dam.
A large number of eels below the dam indicates this was an important place to build an eelway. Low cost drainage piping with a small but constant flow of freshwater makes an effective eel passage device. The gravel and brick help guide the eels into the mouth of the eelway, and also help to break up the velocity of the water, providing lots of resting and hiding places for tiny glass eels.
