Local movements of freshwater eels (Anguilla anguilla L.) in western Ireland

• Main Authors: McGovern, P, McCarthy, T K
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 1992
• Subjects: activity; Anguilla; eels; environmental factors; freshwater eels; local movements; monitoring; silver eel; swimming; swimming speeds; telemetry; Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_book_chapters/13

Biotelemetric techniques, now extensively utilized in fisheries research, have great potential in studies of activity patterns and individual movements of fish, as well as for monitoring physiological and environmental variables. In the case of eels these methods have been employed in a variety of marine and estuarine studies. However, telemetric studies of eels in fresh water have been much more limited. Radiotelemetry was used to monitor movements of Anguilla rostrata in Lake Champlain, Vermont, on the US/Canadian border, and of Anguilla anguilla in a small Spanish lake. Acoustic tags were used by Westerberg (1982) to track migrating silver eels, A. anguilla, through Lake Hjalmaren in Sweden. In the present study acoustic tracking methods were employed to monitor yellow eel, A. anguilla, movements in freshwater in western Ireland. The general objectives were to analyse individual movements with respect to swimming speeds, diel activity cycles, and environmental factors.