Abstract
The migration route and the spawning site of the European eel Anguilla anguilla are still uncertain. It has been suggested that the Mediterranean eel stock does not contribute to spawning because there is no evidence of eels leaving the Mediterranean Sea. To test this hypothesis, we equipped eight female silver eels from the south of France with pop-up satellite tags during escapement from coastal waters. Once in deeper water, the eels quickly established diel vertical migration (DVM) between the upper and lower mesopelagic zone. Five tagged eels were taken by predators within the Mediterranean, but two eels reached the Atlantic Ocean after six months and at distances greater than 2000 km from release. These eels ceased their DVM while they negotiated the Gibraltar Strait, and remained in deep water until they reached the Atlantic Ocean, when they recommenced DVM. Our results are the first to show that eels from Mediterranean can cross the Strait of Gibraltar and continue their migration into the Atlantic Ocean. This finding suggests that Mediterranean countries, as for other EU states, have an important role to play in contributing to conservation efforts for the recovery of the European eel stock.
Highlights
Pop Pop eels undertake distinct diel vertical migration (DVM) behaviour with diurnal depth changes over several hundred metres closely related to sunset and sunrise
For the first time, that silver European eels from the Mediterranean Sea migrate towards and into the Atlantic Ocean according to a priori expectations based on life history[2]
The number of eels we tagged was relatively low, and our experiment was conducted solely with females, the results prove that eels from the Mediterranean are able to achieve the navigational demands of reaching the Atlantic Ocean and contribute to the Atlantic spawning migration with important consequences for eel management plans
Summary
Pop Pop eels undertake distinct diel vertical migration (DVM) behaviour with diurnal depth changes over several hundred metres closely related to sunset and sunrise. Eels occupy the upper mesopelagic layer (200–400 m) and at sunrise they descend into the lower mesopelagic layer (600–1000 m). The general vertical pattern has been confirmed in several other anguillid species[15,16,17,18], suggesting this is a wide spread behavioural phenomenon. The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate if European silver eels do migrate from the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean.
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