"It [the disappearance] happened on a wet and windy full moon. With all the wind, any disturbance outside wouldn't have been noticeable. I believe they've been netted out."
Verberne has been feeding them for the past 15 years.
"I had them for the tourists, there were a couple of hundred eels."
He once ran a home-kill business and would drop offal to the eels, which turned out in force.
"There was usually 50 or 60 sitting there waiting for me, they were huge.
"I'm a little bit shattered [about the incident], I've stopped butchering so I'd go to the supermarket and buy dog roll for them, but this day I came out and there was just nothing there, nothing.
"The eels were cleaned out overnight [on Sunday].
"They were used to being fed, I would throw something in the water and they would just arrive.
"Whoever is responsible, it was a pretty low thing to do. They've just fleeced it right out, with nothing left."
He believes the price of eel is a prime motivator.
"They're fetching $100 a kilo," he said.
A professional eeler based at Haast doubts the eels would have been targeted by a professional however, because "there is no market for them".
"They would have been longfins and we haven't been taking them for the past few years because nobody wants them.
"No proper eeler would have taken those eels because you can't sell them."
Another possibility is that the eels have migrated, but migration usually takes place in March or April.
Freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy said the most likely explanation was that a commercial fisher came and caught them.
"Research shows that an eeler can catch more than 90 per cent of the population in one night."
He confirmed the eels were longfin. A reward is being offered for information leading to the recovery of the eels.
