Eel City is the name given to a community of deep-sea
eels
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
living amongst
hydrothermal vent
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...
s in the new volcano of
Nafanua
Nafanua was a historical ''ali'i'' (chief/queen) and ''toa'' (warrior) of Samoa from the Sā Tonumaipe'ā clan, who took four ''pāpā'' (district) titles, the leading ali'i titles of Samoa. After her death she became a goddess in Polynesian reli ...
in
American Samoa
American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...
. It is unique because most hydrothermal vents are predominantly inhabited by invertebrates, whereas there is little invertebrate life in Eel City.
The community of eels was discovered in 2005, when a new volcanic cone, Nafanua, was discovered inside the submerged caldera of
Vailulu'u volcanic
sea mount
A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff, cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from volcano#Extinct, extinct v ...
.
The eels were identified as
synapobranchid eels ''
Dysommina rugosa
''Dysommina rugosa'' is an eel in the family Synaphobranchidae (cutthroat eels). It was described by Isaac Ginsburg in 1951.Ginsburg, I., 1951 (30 Sept.) ef. 1804''The eels of the northern Gulf Coast of the United States and some related specie ...
'', which are known from trawl samples in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but have never before been studied in their natural habitat. They are deep sea fishes, bottom dwellers, up to 37 cm long.
Preliminary work indicates that they use the vent only as a place to live. They seem to feed not on chemosynthetic bacteria, but on crustaceans that pass by Nafanua's summit in the currents.
During the initial dive in March 2005, one of the discoverers, Hubert Staudigel (a geologist at San Diego's
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...
), commented "I suppose it's possible they migrate up the water column and feed in the water column and migrate back down to the cracks and crevices to hang out. But it seems odd that a deep-sea fish that would normally be experiencing 2- to 5-degree Celsius (35.6 degrees to 41 degrees Fahrenheit) water would be seeking out water that is warmer."
‘Eel City’ discovered near undersea volcano - Science - nbcnews.com
/ref>
References
Organisms living on hydrothermal vents
Hot springs of American Samoa
{{AmericanSamoa-geo-stub