Sea world and south - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 79

A garden of eels. (Photo © Norbert Wu)
A GARDEN OF EELS
Among the most extraordinary fishes in the Sea of Cortez are the gar-
den eels ( Taenioconger digueti ), which live in colonies at moderate depths
of thirty to eighty feet on a sandy bottom. As the name implies, they
literally form a garden of eels.
Growing to about two feet as adults, they live in burrows. When feed-
ing and undisturbed, they extend half or more of their body length
out of their burrow and gently sway and weave as they search with their
sharp little eyes for tiny planktonic animals drifting toward them in
the current. Some areas, such as the west side of Isla Cerralvo, south-
east of La Paz, have what must be millions of garden eels in colonies
half a mile long. As you swim toward them, they imperceptibly glide
down into their sand burrows and disappear. Then when you look be-
hind you, there they are slowly coming back up again. It's almost mag-
ical. They're found throughout the southern Gulf of California, and
there are other species in other parts of the tropics.