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.

[1] The eels were identified as synapobranchid eels Dysommina rugosa, 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.

They seem to feed not on chemosynthetic bacteria, but on crustaceans that pass by Nafanua's summit in the currents.

[2] During the initial dive in March 2005, one of the discoverers, Hubert Staudigel (a geologist at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography), 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.