Smelt Brook in Pond Meadow Park has a seasonal eel ladder. The eel ladder allows American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) to be counted and safely moved around the dam in their migration to the Pond Meadow Pond.

The ladder and trap were designed and fabricated by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) Fishway Crew. DMF and the Weymouth-Braintree Regional Recreation Conservation District, more commonly known as Pond Meadow Park, are managing the ladder.

The partnership seeks to count the number of juvenile American Eel that are migrating to the pond from their spawning habitat in the Sargasso Sea. It is a fish passage improvement and educational tool for the public and the Pond Meadow Park’s Summer Nature Program.

The juvenile eel, known as elver, migrate with the Gulf Stream from the Sargasso Sea a part of the Bermuda Triangle where they are born to rivers and streams across North America. Adult European Eel also migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.

Read more in this in a Sierra Club blog.