# How Did An Eel Get Into The Chicago River?

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-block-club-chicago-podcast-3685203/how-did-an-eel-get-into-the-chicago-river.md
Podcast: [The Block Club Chicago Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-block-club-chicago-podcast-3685203)
Published: 2026-05-19T10:45:00+00:00
Episode link: https://its-all-good-the-block-club-chicago-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/how-did-an-eel-get-into-the-chicago-river-4glLWC00
Audio file: https://cdn.simplecast.com/media/audio/transcoded/4b67569c-9b51-4285-820f-a5244ab668ca/7295b7d5-e3da-4a44-8389-7abb62c35c0c/episodes/audio/group/ec2ab42e-7469-4f84-a51b-36f61ecc90d3/group-item/ef094c50-069c-46ad-9045-8a7f27238423/128_default_tc.mp3?aid=rss_feed&feed=qM5NtVST
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Duration seconds: 945

## Resource

Last week, Ben Gorashchenko looked down into the Chicago River at the long, twisting, wriggling creature he just reeled in. Gorashchenko was pulling in an American eel — an extremely rare find in the Chicago River. Researchers told Block Club that, to their knowledge, there is just one other known instance of someone catching an American eel in the Chicago River in recent years, when a child caught one in 2017. This catch also presents bigger mysteries — like what finding an eel in Chicago can tell us about the local ecosystem and how exactly this animal found its way to River North.

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