1. The Tuna Woman - Stephanie Bowman
When: Monday 14th March
What: Stephanie Bowman or The Tuna Woman made a visit to Greytown
School to talk to us about her work in saving the Longfin Eel of New Zealand
and her book she wrote about two Longfin Eels.
Information I learnt:
Hydro Electric dams can easily kill eels when they are migrating as the turbines
suck in the water and eels follow the flow of the water so they get sucked into
these blades and are chopped up into pieces. In some areas where dams are
situated there is a volunteer programmed called Catch and carry. This is where
volunteers come to the front of the dam and they trap or catch eels and then
carefully transport them around the dam and then release them so they can
continue their journey without being sucked into the blades and being killed.
This significantly reduces the amount of eels being killed. It means that more
eels can finish their journeys and lay their eggs. Female eels are larger than male
eels because of their size. The longest eel that was found was over 2 metres
long. You can identify the age of an eel by a bone found near their ear. You
have to kill the eel to get the bone and when you do you count the rings/layers
of the bone and how many rings there are is how old the eel is. The oldest ever
eel to be found was 106 years of age. A female usually holds between 20 to 30
million eggs when she reaches sexual maturity. When the female eels release
their eggs they are extremely tiny and are clear. They look like glass so are
often referred to as glass eels. Even though 20 to 30 millions eggs hatch
doesn’t mean they all will survive. If something like a whale or shark come and are
taking a gulp of water the eggs will usually be in that area so they are then

2. swallowed. This means that very few eels will survive long enough to make the
journey home. When eels migrate they migrate to Tonga. They then will swim
into big sea trenches and there will be the male eels and they are ready to
release the sperm which then fertilises the eggs that the female lays. The female
eel usually has to swim for 5000 to 6000 kilometres before they reach Tonga.
Because the female egg is carrying so many eggs it is usually very hard for the
eel to swim. That means that when the female eel swims it usually go with the
current so it doesn’t need to swim as much.
About Stephanie’s Book:
Stephanie’s Book is called: Velvet and Elvis. It follows the journey of the
female eel named velvet who is migrating to Tonga. She is carrying 20 to 30
million eggs. It shows when she arrives in Tonga and goes to the sea trench to
lay her eggs. The story then follows the baby ‘glass’ eels and their journey back
to freshwater. It mainly follows Elvis, who is the strongest eel out of that group.
They all go through the difficulties that are causing eels to die. That included:
Hydroelectric Dams, Pollution and drained wetlands. In the end Elvis survives
with very few of the original eels with him. It took overall 7 years for Elvis to
make the journey back to freshwater, which is an extremely long time. Could you
imagine doing that?
Overall the book definitely shows the struggles eels have to go through every
day. This definitely is a good cause and it makes you think about what can you
do. Stephanie Bowman used her skills to write this book and is now travelling
NZ to try and save the Longfin Eel.
By Livvy :)