Age, Growth And Sex Ratio Of The American Eel In The Cooper River, South Carollna

Age-growth analysis was performed on Anguilla rostrata from 2 study sites on the Cooper River, South Carolina. Length ranged from 98 to 834 mm and weight ranged from 1 to 1224 g. Examination of otoliths gave mean age of 5.1 years with a range of 0-15 years. Length-weight relationship was established as: log w = -6.56 + 3.34 log (L). Eels were sexed by morphological and histological examination of gonad tissue. Males comprised only 1.6 percent of the population from Pinopolis Dam and 1.3 percent from Wadboo Creek. Eels smaller than 210 mm could not be sexed.