The duration of migration of Atlantic Anguilla larvae

• Published in: Fish and Fisheries
• Main Authors: Bonhommeau, Sylvain, Castonguay, Martin, Rivot, Etienne, Sabatié, Richard, Le Pape, Olivier
• Other Authors: Écologie et santé des écosystèmes (ESE), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AGROCAMPUS OUEST, Pêches et Océans Canada, Institut Maurice-Lamontagne, pêches et Océans Canada - Insitit Maurice Lamontagne, Institut Maurice-Lamontagne-Institut Maurice-Lamontagne
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2010
• Subjects: Lagrangian modelling; leptocephali; North Atlantic; otoliths; Sargasso; sea; early-life-history; european continental-shelf; herring clupea-harengus; daily growth increments; young american eels; japanese eel; otolith; microstructure; north-atlantic; sargasso sea; glass eels; [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Ecosystems; Anguilla anguilla; European eel
• Online Access: https://institut-agro-rennes-angers.hal.science/hal-00729630; https://institut-agro-rennes-angers.hal.science/hal-00729630/document; https://institut-agro-rennes-angers.hal.science/hal-00729630/file/Bonhommeau_Sylvain.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2010.00362.x

Oceanic larvae of the European (Anguilla anguilla) and American (A. rostrata) eels have to cross the Atlantic Ocean from the Sargasso Sea to European or North American coasts before entering continental habitats. In some European rivers, eel recruitment is now < 1% of levels in the 1980s. A better understanding of the effects of anthropogenic pressures and environmental fluctuations on eel larvae and subsequent recruitment is a prerequisite to build efficient management plans. The present paper provides insight into the critical oceanic phase of the eel life cycle with a focus on the duration of the larval migration whose estimates varies between 7 months and more than 2 years in both species. Does this range correspond to a natural variability in larval duration or does it stem from methodological artefacts? We first review the different methods used to estimate the duration of larval migration and critically describe their possible sources of misinterpretation. We then evaluate the consistency of these methods with the current knowledge about the ecology and physiology of eel larvae and the physical oceanography. While a moderate discrepancy in migration duration was found between methods for the American eel, the discrepancy was large in the European eel. In this species, otolith microstructure studies indicated migration durations between 7 and 9 months, while other methods pointed to durations of about 2 years. We show that estimates in favour of a long migration duration seem more robust to methodological caveats than methods estimating short durations of migration.