Whether European eel leptocephali use the Earth's magnetic field to guide their migration remains an open question

• Published in: Current Biology
• Main Authors: Durif, Caroline M. F., Bonhommeau, S., Briand, Chantal, Browman, H.I., Castonguay, M., Daverat, Françoise, Dekker, W., Diaz, E., Hanel, R., Miller, M.J., Moore, A., Paris, C.B., Skiftesvik, A.B., Westerberg, H., Wickström, H.
• Other Authors: Austevoll Research Station (IMR), Institute of Marine Research Bergen (IMR), University of Bergen (UiB)-University of Bergen (UiB), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), EPTB VILAINE LA ROCHE BERNARD FRA, Partenaires IRSTEA, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), FISHERIES AND OCEANS MONT JOLI CAN, Ecosystèmes aquatiques et changements globaux (UR EABX), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), AZTI SUKARRIETA ESP, THUNEN INSTITUTE OF FISHERIES ECOLOGY HAMBURG DEU, NIHON UNIVERSITY KANAGAWA JPN, LOWESTOFT LABORATORY SUFFOLK GBR, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI USA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Severn River; Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02608386; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.08.045

International audience European eels (Anguilla anguilla) migrate between the southwestern Sargasso Sea and the European and Mediterranean coasts. In a recent paper in Current Biology, Naisbett-Jones et al. [1] claim to "provide the first evidence that they [eels] derive positional information from the Earth's magnetic field" and that this information guides their migration. The evidence reported by Naisbett-Jones et al. [1] in support of this conclusion was derived from eels collected in the Severn River (UK), approximately 50 km upstream of the estuary (i.e. not "in the Severn Estuary" as stated by the authors). Eels collected this far into rivers are benthic and fully adapted to freshwater; that is, they are late-stage glass eels (∼ 2 years old), not the pelagic leptocephalus (larval) life stage that actually undertakes the trans-Atlantic migration. The entire interpretive framework for the Naisbett-Jones et al. [1] study rests on the assumption that the behaviour of these late-stage freshwater glass eels, and their responses to magnetic fields, can be used as a proxy for the responses of eel leptocephali. The authors present no evidence in support of this key assumption. Durif et al. take issue with a recent Current Biology study on eel migration.