Vailulu’u 2005: Nafanua Submarine Volcano “Eel City“

Vailulu’u is an underwater volcano that lies approximately 20 miles east of Ta’u Island in American Samoa. During a 2005 expedition to the volcano, scientists encountered crevices at 708 meters (2,323 feet) of a hydrothermal vent site occupied by thriving aggregations of cutthroat (synaphobranchid) eels. These eels, which have been identified as Dysommina rugosa, are known from trawl samples in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but had never before been studied in their natural habitat. As the only co