"I may be small, but boy am I shiny." The first reader to identify this glistening creature will win a free Chesapeake Bay Foundation T-shirt. Enter your guesses as comments in the section below. Ready, set, go!
UPDATE: It is an eel larva, called a leptocephalus. A few readers guessed "eel," but I am giving the prize to Liz, who was the most specific in writing that it was this phase of the eel's lifecycle.
American eels have a fascinating lifecycle. They're spawned in the Sargasso Sea, near Bermuda, and grow into larva called leptocephalus. Then they migrate to the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways along the East Coast, where they spend most of their lives as a greenish/yellowish color in freshwater streams. After about 20 years, they mature and become "silver eels," with their bodies transforming dramatically -- their stomachs vanishing and their eyes bulging -- and they swim all the way back to the Sargasso Sea to mate, spawn and die.
Congrats Liz! And thanks to everyone for playing.
By Tom Pelton
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
(Photo: NOAA/ S. Johnsen using images from E. Widder )
(I will give the answer and the photo credit tomorrow...I don't want to ruin the surprise!) Tom Pelton
an eel? of some sort haha
Posted by: Amy | 05/26/2011 at 09:04 AM
It's a phosphorus.
Posted by: alida greenhalgh | 05/26/2011 at 09:06 AM
It's a Lancelet
Posted by: Rob Bielawski | 05/26/2011 at 09:18 AM
Electric eel
Posted by: Terri | 05/26/2011 at 09:20 AM
ribbon fish
Posted by: rick reeder | 05/26/2011 at 09:21 AM
Atlantic needlefish?
Posted by: Krista | 05/26/2011 at 10:40 AM
American Eel.
Posted by: Len Ellis | 05/26/2011 at 10:47 AM
Glass eel
Posted by: Terri | 05/26/2011 at 10:51 AM
branchiostoma
Posted by: tia tozzolo | 05/26/2011 at 03:45 PM
Eel leptocephalus
Posted by: Liz | 05/26/2011 at 06:47 PM
A silver sided tape-worm!
Posted by: Tod Bowman | 05/26/2011 at 09:08 PM
It's migrate to the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways along the east coast, where they spend most of his life as green and yellow in freshwater rivers.
Posted by: דומיין בעברית | 10/17/2011 at 08:00 AM
I am a long time ago I read your blog and has long been saying that you're a great writer
Posted by: money form god | 02/03/2012 at 03:09 AM