Headhunt Scholarship
We do our best to make the money work all around with the headhunt each year. We give away as much as possible to the winners, provide a nice venue and food for the celebration, create some cool t-shirts, and, as of last year, we’re proud to say that we also provided a scholarship to a local student heading off to school.
Sarah Flavell, the daughter of a tournament participant, was the 2009 recipient. We asked for a short essay on fishing or the saltwater environment—check out her piece on the American eel, also posted here.
We wish Sarah the best as she heads off Syracuse University for Engineering, and we hope that she follows her aspirations to help the environment.
If you’d like to nominate someone for the 2010 Headhunt Scholarship, please send an email to the website.
Congratulations, Sarah!
Sincerely,
TheHeadhunt
Sarah Flavell, the daughter of a tournament participant, was the 2009 recipient. We asked for a short essay on fishing or the saltwater environment—check out her piece on the American eel, also posted here.
We wish Sarah the best as she heads off Syracuse University for Engineering, and we hope that she follows her aspirations to help the environment.
If you’d like to nominate someone for the 2010 Headhunt Scholarship, please send an email to the website.
Congratulations, Sarah!
Sincerely,
TheHeadhunt
The American Eel
The American Eel has been heard of by many, but sadly very few know about this creature itself. The eel is commonly used amongst both commercial and recreational fishermen as bait and is familiar in their circuit. Information about Anguilla rostrata is readily available, but unfortunately is low in quantity compared to the amount of quality. Eels are difficult to come across outside of the yellow eel phase, one of three main phases during the life cycle of the eel. This makes it difficult to study the rest of their lifespan.
Silver eels migrate from all over the east side of the United States, wherever there is a river leading to the Atlantic Ocean, and meet in the Sargasso Sea to mate and then die. The leptocephali are the infant eels remaining in the Sargasso Sea. It is believed that they stay there for the period of time that it takes for them to make the transition to glass eel. Glass eels are slightly longer than the leptocephali, usually about three to five inches long, and are characterized by their transparent skin. When viewing the side of a glass eel, one can see the heart, stomach, other organs that are still in the middle of development, and the spine. As glass eels, the juveniles make their way from the Sargasso Sea to a fresh water habitat; the only times that eels are found in salt water are when they are finding fresh water to live in as glass eels, or if they are silver eels making their way south to mate. The glass eels begin to gain pigment and around two years of age, they are no longer transparent, making them yellow eels.
The yellow eel can have a range of lengths, as it is the longest stage of their life, and can grow proportionally to the amount of food that they consume; they have been found anywhere between the lengths of eighteen inches to five feet for females. This yellow stage is the most important economically, because glass eels and silver eels don’t sell as food or make particularly good bait for fishermen. Eels live in their freshwater habitats under gravel, mud or sand until they come out at night to feed. They will eat a range of animals, from dead marine life to insects to each other, if hungry enough. When the yellow eels become sexually mature, anywhere between four and a half years to twenty-three years of age, they metamorphose into the silver eel. At this stage, the eyes grow to twice or three times their previous size, the eels grow thicker around the middle, and most of their internal organs are lost; silver eels lose all of their internal organs except for their swim bladder, most of their respiratory system, and their circulatory system. The blood vessels that heed their swim bladders increase in number, assisting their buoyancy by increasing gas deposition and reducing the loss of gas. They do not eat during the six month migration down south, back to the Sargasso Sea. Instead, they will use their fat reserves for fuel. After reaching the Sargasso and spawning, it is commonly believed that the eel dies within the day because no one has ever seen a silver eel leave the Sargasso Sea.
American eels are becoming more and more difficult to come by. As a result, a ban on using these eels as bait in general, rather than just as live bait, has recently been processed. It has also been suggested to put them on the endangered species list. As seen above, the eels have a complex life cycle that is very particular and fragile. Most eels live in estuaries or harbors, both of which are often polluted. Because eels live in the murky areas, it is commonly believed that they don't need as clean of water as other fish; this is actually quite the opposite. Eels are some of the more sensitive creatures to pollution because they don't just breathe through their gills, but their skin as well. They also can absorb pollutants in the earth in addition to the water because they spend a lot of time in the mud and wetlands. This might then be a contributing factor to the “missing eels”. When looking at the ban against eels as bait, one can also then see how much more beneficial it would be to try to preserve the eels' habitat instead of trying to save them and leaving their homes polluted.
Silver eels migrate from all over the east side of the United States, wherever there is a river leading to the Atlantic Ocean, and meet in the Sargasso Sea to mate and then die. The leptocephali are the infant eels remaining in the Sargasso Sea. It is believed that they stay there for the period of time that it takes for them to make the transition to glass eel. Glass eels are slightly longer than the leptocephali, usually about three to five inches long, and are characterized by their transparent skin. When viewing the side of a glass eel, one can see the heart, stomach, other organs that are still in the middle of development, and the spine. As glass eels, the juveniles make their way from the Sargasso Sea to a fresh water habitat; the only times that eels are found in salt water are when they are finding fresh water to live in as glass eels, or if they are silver eels making their way south to mate. The glass eels begin to gain pigment and around two years of age, they are no longer transparent, making them yellow eels.
The yellow eel can have a range of lengths, as it is the longest stage of their life, and can grow proportionally to the amount of food that they consume; they have been found anywhere between the lengths of eighteen inches to five feet for females. This yellow stage is the most important economically, because glass eels and silver eels don’t sell as food or make particularly good bait for fishermen. Eels live in their freshwater habitats under gravel, mud or sand until they come out at night to feed. They will eat a range of animals, from dead marine life to insects to each other, if hungry enough. When the yellow eels become sexually mature, anywhere between four and a half years to twenty-three years of age, they metamorphose into the silver eel. At this stage, the eyes grow to twice or three times their previous size, the eels grow thicker around the middle, and most of their internal organs are lost; silver eels lose all of their internal organs except for their swim bladder, most of their respiratory system, and their circulatory system. The blood vessels that heed their swim bladders increase in number, assisting their buoyancy by increasing gas deposition and reducing the loss of gas. They do not eat during the six month migration down south, back to the Sargasso Sea. Instead, they will use their fat reserves for fuel. After reaching the Sargasso and spawning, it is commonly believed that the eel dies within the day because no one has ever seen a silver eel leave the Sargasso Sea.
American eels are becoming more and more difficult to come by. As a result, a ban on using these eels as bait in general, rather than just as live bait, has recently been processed. It has also been suggested to put them on the endangered species list. As seen above, the eels have a complex life cycle that is very particular and fragile. Most eels live in estuaries or harbors, both of which are often polluted. Because eels live in the murky areas, it is commonly believed that they don't need as clean of water as other fish; this is actually quite the opposite. Eels are some of the more sensitive creatures to pollution because they don't just breathe through their gills, but their skin as well. They also can absorb pollutants in the earth in addition to the water because they spend a lot of time in the mud and wetlands. This might then be a contributing factor to the “missing eels”. When looking at the ban against eels as bait, one can also then see how much more beneficial it would be to try to preserve the eels' habitat instead of trying to save them and leaving their homes polluted.