I couldn’t pass this one up. That ugly little fellow in the Reuters photo is an electric eel, and it’s powering lights for a Christmas tree in a Japanese Aquarium.
In a video from Reuters Television, which is available at the bottom of this story, two aluminum panels inside the eel’s tank act as electrodes, capturing the power needed to light the tree. Kazuhiko Minawa, who thought up the idea, spent two months devising a system that would capture the animal’s electric power.
Eel’s use electricity to fend off threats to their well-being, or getting a bite to eat. Actually, the eel isn’t an eel at all, it’s a fish, more commonly known as the Knifefish, a relative of the catfish family. Wikipedia says the fish is an obligate air-breather, rising to the surface about every 10 minutes for a gulp of air and then returns to the bottom.
When hunting, or defending themselves, eels can produce electrical shocks of up to 500 volts and 1 ampere of current, enough to do serious, or even fatal harm to a human. That’s why they wind up in public aquariums and not the home fish tank. You’d need a pretty large one at that, they can grow up to eight feet in length and weigh 40 pounds.
Back to our Japanese aquarium. The eel-Christmas tree inventor told Reuters Television that gathering all electric eels from around the world would light one very large Christmas tree.
Video of Eel-powered Christmas tree from Reuters Video.
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Max Lindberg
My home state is Illinois, and my hometown a little railroad/farming community named Galesburg.We lived on a small farm during my high school years and I became very aware of nature and it's wonders. I loved the out of doors, working with animals, plowing fields and harvesting crops. Those were very good years.After a stint in the Army during the Korean war my broadcasting career took off at the local radio station, a 250 watt "teapot" as it was called in those days. My first job was as an engineer, then the ham came out and I became an announcer/newsman, graduating after several years to a larger market and a stint as a TV journalist/photographer. Cold, wet weather led me to the southwest where I've lived for most of the last 40 years, with a couple of years out to have fun working as a private investigator in San Francisco, and a few years working in Las Vegas hotels and casinos. In all, its been a real ride.After retiring a few years back I became fascinated with the efforts being made to find alternative energy sources. I've watched our environment deteriorate during my lifetime, and now it's my chance to join the chorus of intelligent and caring individuals making a difference one day at a time.
2 Responses to Electric Eel Lights Christmas Tree
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Amazing. I wish I was there to see it.
How funny! And here I was envisioning the eel being strung around the tree like garland…
The eel has more Christmas spirit than I do.