Zap! Play it Safe Around Electricity!

i, I’m Joe Mortenson. I’m a marine biologist. I H B y G eorge S nyder study creatures that live in water. I’m really fascinated by electric fish. Fish really can make

Scientists are most interested in electric eels, because they make the most electricity. Electric eels can cause a shock of up to 600 volts of electricity. This is powerful stuff—as much as five times the

voltage that’s in a wall outlet. It’s enough to kill you or me. Electric eels use

Electricity travels very easily through water. That’s why it’s such an effective tool for elec tric fish. The human body is about 60 per cent water. That’s why your body can conduct electricity!

electricity. Even you and I make small electrical charges. Our bodies make electricity to help our hearts beat and make our muscles move, but some critters can generate enough electricity to knock down a horse! Electric rays belong to a family of fish called Torpedinidae. That’s where we get the word torpedo. In Latin, Torpedinidae means “fish” and “numb.” If this fish hits you, you will be numb. It would feel as if you touched an exposed light socket, and it can be just as dangerous. Not all electric fish have such a powerful shock. Some use a weak electric signal to communicate with one another, to find prey, or to find their way around. If you touched these fish, you would barely feel the charge.

their electric charge for defense or to stun or kill prey. Water is a very good conductor of electricity, so when the electric fish gives off a shock, the water car

ries the shock to any fish swim ming nearby, making them easy pickings for the eel. After giving off one electric discharge, electric fish must rest to recharge their “batteries.” And that’s a good way to think of these creatures. Electric fish really are like living batteries. Just like in a battery, chemicals inside the eel react with each other to make electricity. Nearly all of an elec tric eel’s long round

body is taken up by its electric organs. That’s the part of its body that makes the electricity. The electric organs

Photo byKen Lucas/Courtesy of the Steinhart Aquarium, San Francisco, CA

Electric Eel

8 ZAP!