KEY POINTS

  • A man dumped two bags of Asian swamp eels in NYC's Prospect Park, estimated to hold at least 100 individuals. He told bystanders we wanted to "save lives"
  • The eels aren't expected to survive the winter, but will eat just about anything in the meantime
  • This is far from the first time New York City has seen illegal animal releases: Shakespeare enthusiasts released 60 European Starlings in 1890, which grew into flocks large enough to take down airplanes and destroy crops

Hundreds of Asian swamp eels have been illegally released into New York City’s Prospect Park. Their voracious appetites are expected to have a negative environmental impact but they likely won’t survive the winter.

According to reports this week, the eels were released by a man who told bystanders he “just wanted to save lives.” He took the eels in two plastic bags, dumped them in the lake, and then walked away. There’s no exact count of how many he released, but bystanders estimate at least 100.

Prospect park, Brooklyn
Snow falls in Prospect Park on a snowy afternoon in New York City, Jan. 17, 2018. Getty Images / Spencer Platt

"People like animals and they sometimes think they’re doing a good thing by letting them go. Most will die. Some will become a problem, and then there’s no going back," Jason Mushi-South, an urban ecologist with Fordham University, told the Associated Press.

The eels could prove to be an ecological threat if they survive the winter and find that the steadily warming climate is habitable long-term. Katrina Toal, the city’s deputy director of parks and recreation, told AP that while that eels will eat plants, insects, crustaceans, frogs, turtles and fish, the parks department doesn’t plant to trap them. The eels are hard to deal with because they’re nocturnal and pass their time burrowed in the lakebed.

“This kind of species is a little tricky. They’re well hidden,” she said. “We’re not going to go out there and try to trap any of them.”

The eels have also been found in eight other states, including Hawaii, Georgia, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania.

New York City has long suffered from intentional and accidental releases of foreign animals. Shakespeare enthusiasts released around 60 European Starlings in 1890 that grew to today’s hundreds of millions, causing nationwide destruction and even bringing down planes. Red-eared slider turtles, bought as pets and then abandoned, have caused algal blooms by ousting local painted turtles.

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