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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?!
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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?
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Me as a tiny egg!
Some of my 20 million brothers and sisters have
already hatched
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Hatching out of my egg
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Here I am 3 days old Don’t I look cute?!
When I was this age I was called a larvae
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My 1st birthday! Can you see my
tiny teeth?
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A photo of me as a larvae – swimming through the warm waters of the Pacific
Ocean
There I am!
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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.
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1½ years old - the day I finally
reached the New Zealand
coast
At this age everyone called me a glass eel I wonder why?
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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.
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I raced up the river with lots of other glass eels as soon as the
sun had set.
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2 years old. At this age I was called an elver. My skin has
turned darker to help me hide on the streambed.
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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?
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I had to get pretty
good at climbing
over rocks!
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And even up walls!
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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