Food Habits and Seasonal Abundance of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata, from the Lower Chesapeake Bay

Food habits and seasonal abundance of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata (Lesueur), were studied from the brackish water regions of three Virginia rivers. Abundance in trawl surveys was related to water temperatures with fewer eels being caught during the colder months. Polychaetes, crustaceans and bivalves were the most important dietary items of A. rostrata in brackish water. There was much predation on the commercially important species Mya arenaria and Callinectes sapidus.