Velvet has been rumored to have made two appearances for which we have no photos available. Many of you know The Jester House in the Tasman region as a place with a giant boot cottage and where tame eels writhe right out of the water to take food from your hands. Every spring Judy and Steve, the eel-loving owners of the famed cafe have an Eel Festival to welcome the eels back after the cold winter when they hide deep in the banks. This past September, among other eel activities they also had Velvet on display…. well, as much of her as they could as it it ended up raining buckets!
Here’s what they had to say:
We really enjoyed hosting Velvet unfortunately it rained all weekend and we were not able to display as much of her as possible. However what we could display looked fantastic and generated a lot of interest.We collected a lot of signatures on the petition. On the weekend of the Eel Festival we did lots of eel related activities which were enjoyed by many families despite the rain. There a photos posted on our facebook page that you can check out. Thanks for all you are doing for our wonderful eels.
So, thanks to Jester House for hosting Velvet and celebrating this years’ eel return in spite of the weather!
And, soon after she left the Tasman Velvet was seen by the folks of Timaru while she graced the walls of the South Canterbury Museum. Thanks to Philip Howe, the museum’s director, for sharing our eel and the eels story with folks around the region.
Finally, just so you get a sweet-as eel photo to look at here, check this crazy-cool and sweet turf sculpture of Burra the eel:
Sam Crosby, the Coordinator of Education Services for Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, sent this photo of the latest addition to the Education Precinct in Centennial Parklands near Sydney, Australia! Here’s what the eel-hugging Aussie had to say about this very green eel:
Her name is ‘Burra’ which is the local Dharug word for Eel. She is a 15ft long turf sculpture (the photo only shows the front half). We hope that she will help to inspire children to learn about the longfin eel life cycle and how to protect her ocean and pond habitat.
Pretty cool, huh? Thanks everyone for these mysterious eel sightings!