10-pound eel found on Maui could be harmful
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Scientists at Bishop Museum say an alien eel found in a pond near Kaupo on Maui last year is the giant mottled eel, which could harm native creatures.
Mike Yamamoto • Dept. of Land and Natural Resources
The 39-inch, 10-pound specimen may come from someone's stock of eels dating to the 1960s when they were imported to Hawai'i as a delicacy, according to Shelley Anne James, researcher at the museum's Pacific Center for Molecular Biodiversity.
This giant mottled eel, or Anguilla marmorata, was found in a pond near Kaupo on Maui. The 10-pound, 39-inch alien eel poses a threat to native creatures.
Or, Bishop Museum ichthyologist Arnold Suzumoto told officials, the eel might have been carried here in ballast water aboard a ship, and somehow reached the pond.
It is even possible that it could have crossed the ocean on its own from Tahiti, its nearest home.
The mottled eel, which moves from salt water to fresh water, is found in the Indo-Pacific region, and in South Africa. State laws prohibit importing live non-native eels.
A Maui boy fishing in the pond early last summer was startled when his spear came up with the big, wriggling black creature that later died, according to aquatic resources specialist Mike Yamamoto of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
No one at DLNR on Maui had ever seen anything like it, so they sent it to Honolulu.
"We thought it was a white eel, a saltwater eel, but when it was defrosted at Bishop Museum, that was a shock," Yamamoto said.
Suzumoto identified it as Anguilla marmorata, and asked James to compare its DNA with other "codes" on file at the National Center for Biotechnology Information data bank.
"It matched exactly, and the mystery was solved," said James.
