Assessment of the entering stock, migration dynamics and fish pass fidelity of european eel in the belgian meuse river

peer reviewed Migration dynamics of incoming eels in Belgium via Lixhe in the Meuse River were investigated using two fish passes with different configurations— net traps and automatic detection stations—as tools to distinguish resident and migrating eels. From April to September 2013, 435 eels (P50...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:River Research and Applications
Main Authors: Nzau Matondo, Billy, Benitez, Jean-Philippe, Dierckx, Arnaud, Philippart, Jean-Claude, Ovidio, Michaël
Other Authors: AFFISH-RC - Applied and Fundamental FISH Research Center - ULiège, FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: John Wiley & Sons, Inc 2017
Subjects:
migration
Fish-pass fidelity
eel stock
Meuse
RFID detection
anguilla anguilla
Life sciences
Environmental sciences & ecology
Sciences du vivant
Sciences de l’environnement & écologie
Anguilla anguilla
Online Access:https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/196081
https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3034
Description
Summary:peer reviewed Migration dynamics of incoming eels in Belgium via Lixhe in the Meuse River were investigated using two fish passes with different configurations— net traps and automatic detection stations—as tools to distinguish resident and migrating eels. From April to September 2013, 435 eels (P50 length, 403 mm; range, 196–836 mm) were caught (daily maxima catch, 90 eels per day), 90% between 13 June and 1 August (50 days) and P50 on 19 July. Eels migrated mostly at 19–26 °C (P50, 24.4 °C), river discharge 65–314m3 s 1 (P50, 84m3 s 1), during the dark at 00:00–05:00 h and during both the waxing and waning phases of moonlight. From 396 eels tagged and released 0.3 km downstream of the Lixhe dam, 6.8% of them were recaptured, and 37.4% were detected. Migration flux was estimated at 7184 eels (0.863 t) using the markrecapture method and decreased to 1156 eels (0.139 t) using automatic transponder detection. Most eels probably migrated through a sluice located downstream of Lixhe to reach the upper Meuse via the Albert Canal. Eels moved almost independently to the configuration of the fish passes and their location, but most eels displayed fidelity to the fish pass where they were captured. Migrant eels showed a wide range of size and life stages, with a higher proportion of eels (80%) belonging to the yellow eel stage. A lower proportion of eels (6%) had a larger size and presented an advanced continental silvering process corresponding to the migrating stage before their transatlantic migration. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI:10.1002/rra.3034

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