Scientists in Vermont and Quebec are trying to determine what caused Lake Champlain’s populations of American eels to decline to almost nothing over the last two decades.
And biologists and fisheries experts are trying to come up with a plan to bring back the population of the snakelike fish, which until the early 1980s were so abundant commercial anglers would harvest tons of them every year.
American eels start life in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
After hatching, eel larvae float on ocean currents to East Coast rivers, including the St. Lawrence.
Biologists do not fully understand the reason for the decline. Theories include climate change, pollution, and hydroelectric dams on the Richelieu.