Current and historical distribution of the American eel Anguilla rostrata in the countries and territories of the Wider Caribbean

Abstract

The American eel is a widely distributed, facultatively catadromous fish that is reported to range from southern Greenland to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. Despite such a broad distribution, our understanding of the species' biology and ecology is based on research carried out almost exclusively in Canada and the United States. As one moves south from the United States through both the Antilles and Mexico, progressively less is known about the species. Even farther south, in Central and South America, information is sufficiently scant as to raise doubt on whether or not the species occurs there at all. This study compiled available quantitative information from literature and museum records and qualitative information from other literature and personal contacts on the distribution of the American eel from Mexico, Central America, northern South America, and the Antilles, to provide the first comprehensive description of the species' historical and current distribution in the region. The results of this investigation confirm that the American eel was historically, and continues to be, widely distributed throughout the Wider Caribbean region, extending all the way to eastern Venezuela and the island of Trinidad. Furthermore, this work also addresses habitat loss and degradation, pollution, and increasing pressure from developing commercial fisheries as the major threats facing the species both locally in, and broadly throughout, the region. If effective management and conservation of the panmictic American eel is to be achieved, it is of critical importance that greater efforts be made to promote and encourage research on the species' basic ecology in the Wider Caribbean region.

Synergistic patterns of threat and the challenges facing global anguillid eel conservation

“…2). Long-term FIM and CPUE data were available for A. rostrata from the St. Lawrence River system to the Caribbean Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River system, although data from this southern portion of the distribution were sparse (see recent review by Benchetrit and McCleave, 2015). The majority of data for the American eel related to young yellow eels although the few data sets available for glass eel recruitment and silver eel escapement suggested a population decline of ∼50% over three generations (36 years) and a slightly greater decline (50%-60%) in yellow eel abundance, placing A. rostrata in the EN category.…”

“…These regions included the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbeanalthough a recent study begins to address this (see Benchetrit and McCleave, 2015) -large parts of Africa, Central and South Asia, parts of South-East Asia and the islands of the South Pacific. As the exploitation of species in these areas appears to be increasing considerably more monitoring and research is required to effectively mitigate against the potential impact of a shift in fisheries trends.…”

Ecology and conservation of the American eel in the Caribbean region

“…The American eel, Anguilla rostrata LeSueur, is a widely distributed, economically valuable, culturally significant and ecologically important, but imperiled fish species. It is a facultatively catadromous species (McCleave & Edeline, ) with multiple life stages that occur in freshwater and estuarine habitats from southern Greenland (historically) through eastern Canada and the United States to Venezuela, including Central America, northern parts of South America, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean regions (Figure : Benchetrit & McCleave, ; Tesch, ). Current knowledge confirms a single panmictic American eel population that spawns in the Sargasso Sea of the Atlantic Ocean.…”

“…The vast majority of research and knowledge on the American eel is derived from temperate regions in the United States and Canada, and very little is known about the species in its tropical distribution in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico regions (Benchetrit & McCleave, ; Shepard, ). Ocean currents disperse American eel larvae (leptocephali) from the western Sargasso Sea spawning grounds, and a majority of the population are found along the Atlantic coasts of the United States and Canada (Figure ; Miller et al., ; Shepard, ).…”

“…A lesser number may be transported via the Caribbean Current to the Gulf Loop Current, and settle in Caribbean island and mainland rivers and continental waters of the Gulf of Mexico (Kleckner & McCleave, , ; Miller et al., ). Once these young eels settle in Caribbean estuarine and fresh waters, their biology and ecology are largely unknown, with their distribution in the region only recently discerned (Benchetrit & McCleave, ). The American eel benchmark stock assessment does not include population segments in the Caribbean, but assumes that trends in the region are similar to those modelled (ASMFC (Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission), ).…”