Fresh data on the timing and speed of the oceanic spawning migration of European eels suggest a new paradigm for spawning ecology.

h i g h l i g h t s • The first global review of anguillid population data and conservation status. • Eel population data currently fall short of required length and geographic range. • Multiple, synergistic, yet variable threats face eels across all life-history stages.• Key recommendations made for input into international eel conservation strategies. a b s t r a c tWith broad distributions, diadromous fishes can be exposed to multiple threats at different stages of development. For the primarily catadromous eels of the family Anguillidae, there is growing international concern for the population abundance and escapement trends of some of these species and yet incomplete knowledge of their remarkable life-histories hampers management and conservation. Anguillids experience a suite of pressures that include habitat loss/modification, migration barriers, pollution, parasitism, exploitation, and

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The copepod Lepeophtheirus salmonis is ectoparasitic on Atlantic and Pacific wild salmonids. It is a major pest to Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture and may be implicated in recent declines of certain European wild salmonid stocks. Variation at six microsatellite loci was assessed among L. salmonis from wild and farmed salmonids in Scotland, wild sea-run brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Norway, and farmed Atlantic salmon in eastern Canada. An outgroup North Pacific sample was obtained from farmed Atlantic salmon in British Columbia. No significant differentiation was found between L. salmonis from the host species or among samples from throughout the North Atlantic. This is consistent with long-distance oceanic migration of wild hosts and larval interchange between farmed and wild host stocks being sufficient to prevent genetic divergence of L. salmonis throughout the North Atlantic. These results have important management implications for both wild stock conservation and aquaculture in that genetically, L. salmonis in the North Atlantic comprises a single population: there is no evidence of isolation of populations on farmed hosts from those on wild fish. Comparison between North Pacific and North Atlantic L. salmonis populations showed significant but low differentiation (FST = 0.06).

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