IMMENSE EEL TANKS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 214, 3 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

IMMENSE EEL TANKS.

\ writkr in the London Fteld says : — I ia ve juttt witnessed a most interesting -Uu;ht, namely, the rishmg for dead eels n the five immense tmiks at the eellishery at this station, belonging to Messts Euright and Hartigau of Castle•onnell. The quantity of live eels iv the .mks is really enormous —between vJO.OOO and 70,000, at least. In order to pieservethe fish in perfect health and condition, every morning the tanks are • fished ' by a number of men with liirge landing-nets, when all the dead et-ls are taken out and sold to the poor people. It is during this fishing process chat the silvery inmates of the tanks are -..•en to the best advantage, for every fin nid tail are in motion, swimming up .vaidsand downwards in oue vastliviug nass eels of .ill ages sizes and degrees ,tre there. Thousands are there also in the tink, varying in weight from 2oz to 81b. 10U>, and 121b. These latter are the well- flavoured, juicy fellows that arc 'onvorted into the delicious 'collared j el ' for which Killaloe is so justly famous. Of late the capture of eels iv the Slnnnon is by no means so large as in former years. The extensive drain.ije \hich has been carried on throughout rhe countrj during the last twenty or thirty years will account for the decrease I remember one night, about forty years igo, during the ' November dark,' when 40 000 eels were captured at Killaloe, md it was estimated that the same night 10,000 more escaped, the nets not having been able to withstand the immense weight of the fish and the force of che heavy winter torrent. Frequently during the winter other creatures than eels are swept into the net*. One night this season a whole flock of geese, fifteen in number, were found in the nets quite dead : and en the other occasions full-grown otter* of both, sexes were also drowned in the treacherous weirs. Jproptt of otters, I have repeatedly thought what fun it would be if I dropped one of my tame otters into oue of the big eel tanks. I must try the tricky some day — of course, with the permission of the proprietors."