First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea
Abstract The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is critically endangered (according to the most recent IUCN assessment) and has suffered a 95% decline in recruitment since the 1980s, attributed in part to factors occurring during the marine phases of its life-cycle. As an adult, the European eel under...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19248-8 |
| _version_ | 1817983801851117568 |
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| author | Rosalind M. Wright Adam T. Piper Kim Aarestrup Jose M. N. Azevedo George Cowan Andy Don Matthew Gollock Sara Rodriguez Ramallo Randolph Velterop Alan Walker Håkan Westerberg David Righton |
| author_facet | Rosalind M. Wright Adam T. Piper Kim Aarestrup Jose M. N. Azevedo George Cowan Andy Don Matthew Gollock Sara Rodriguez Ramallo Randolph Velterop Alan Walker Håkan Westerberg David Righton |
| author_sort | Rosalind M. Wright |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is critically endangered (according to the most recent IUCN assessment) and has suffered a 95% decline in recruitment since the 1980s, attributed in part to factors occurring during the marine phases of its life-cycle. As an adult, the European eel undertakes the longest spawning migration of all anguillid eels, a distance of 5000 to 10,000 km across the Atlantic Ocean to the Sargasso Sea. However, despite the passage of almost 100 years since Johannes Schmidt proposed the Sargasso Sea as the breeding place of European eels on the basis of larval surveys, no eggs or spawning adults have ever been sampled there to confirm this. Fundamental questions therefore remain about the oceanic migration of adult eels, including navigation mechanisms, the routes taken, timings of arrival, swimming speed and spawning locations. We attached satellite tags to 26 eels from rivers in the Azores archipelago and tracked them for periods between 40 and 366 days at speeds between 3 and 12 km day−1, and provide the first direct evidence of adult European eels reaching their presumed breeding place in the Sargasso Sea. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T23:37:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8afa907b6d9e4e60be09e0fb921dedd6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T23:37:13Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-8afa907b6d9e4e60be09e0fb921dedd62022-12-22T02:24:40ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-10-011211610.1038/s41598-022-19248-8First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso SeaRosalind M. Wright0Adam T. Piper1Kim Aarestrup2Jose M. N. Azevedo3George CowanAndy Don4Matthew Gollock5Sara Rodriguez RamalloRandolph Velterop6Alan Walker7Håkan Westerberg8David Righton9Environment AgencyInstitute of ZoologyTechnical University of Denmark, National Institute of Aquatic ResourcesCentre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes and Faculdade de Ciências E Tecnologia, Universidade Dos AçoresEnvironment AgencyZoological Society of LondonNatural EnglandThe Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture ScienceDepartment of Aquatic Resources, Institute of Freshwater Research, Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesThe Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture ScienceAbstract The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is critically endangered (according to the most recent IUCN assessment) and has suffered a 95% decline in recruitment since the 1980s, attributed in part to factors occurring during the marine phases of its life-cycle. As an adult, the European eel undertakes the longest spawning migration of all anguillid eels, a distance of 5000 to 10,000 km across the Atlantic Ocean to the Sargasso Sea. However, despite the passage of almost 100 years since Johannes Schmidt proposed the Sargasso Sea as the breeding place of European eels on the basis of larval surveys, no eggs or spawning adults have ever been sampled there to confirm this. Fundamental questions therefore remain about the oceanic migration of adult eels, including navigation mechanisms, the routes taken, timings of arrival, swimming speed and spawning locations. We attached satellite tags to 26 eels from rivers in the Azores archipelago and tracked them for periods between 40 and 366 days at speeds between 3 and 12 km day−1, and provide the first direct evidence of adult European eels reaching their presumed breeding place in the Sargasso Sea.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19248-8 |
| spellingShingle | Rosalind M. Wright Adam T. Piper Kim Aarestrup Jose M. N. Azevedo George Cowan Andy Don Matthew Gollock Sara Rodriguez Ramallo Randolph Velterop Alan Walker Håkan Westerberg David Righton First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea Scientific Reports |
| title | First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea |
| title_full | First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea |
| title_fullStr | First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea |
| title_full_unstemmed | First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea |
| title_short | First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea |
| title_sort | first direct evidence of adult european eels migrating to their breeding place in the sargasso sea |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19248-8 |
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