Driftwood's River Journey

Driftwood was found in a storm drain, a large, female American eel far from her river home. She was silvering—changing color for her final migration to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. We kept her in a large, dimly lit tank with hiding places. She'd undulate through the water with hypnotic grace, her body a continuous muscle. The tank is just filtered water now, missing her sinuous movement, her curious exploration of objects with her pointed snout, and the biological mystery she represented—an animal born in an ocean, living in rivers, and destined to return to the ocean to die.