Mapping silver eel migration routes in the North Sea

Westerberg, HåkanSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences,Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,Institutionen för akvatiska resurser,Department of Aquatic Resources (författare)

2022-01-10
Springer Science and Business Media LLC,2022
Nature Publishing Group: Open Access Journals - Option C / Nature Publishing Group,2024

Recent developments in tracking technology resulted in the mapping of various marine spawning migration routes of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla). However, migration routes in the North Sea have rarely been studied, despite many large European rivers and hence potential eel growing habitat discharge into the North Sea. In this study, we present the most comprehensive map to date with migration routes by silver European eels in the North Sea and document for the first time successful eel migration through the English Channel. Migration tracks were reconstructed for 42 eels tagged in Belgium and 12 in Germany. Additionally, some eels moved up north to exit the North Sea over the British Isles, confirming the existence of two different routes, even for eels exiting from a single river catchment. Furthermore, we observed a wide range in migration speeds (6.8-45.2 km day(-1)). We hypothesize that these are likely attributed to water currents, with eels migrating through the English Channel being significantly faster than eels migrating northward.

Sveriges lantbruksuniversitetInstitutionen för akvatiska resurser (creator_code:org_t)
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Om ämnet

NATURVETENSKAP: NATURVETENSKAP; och Geovetenskap och ...; och Oceanografi hydr ...

Kungliga biblioteket hanterar dina personuppgifter i enlighet med EU:s dataskyddsförordning (2018), GDPR. Läs mer om hur det funkar här.
Så här hanterar KB dina uppgifter vid användning av denna tjänst.