Elver Invasion, Population Structure and Growth of Marbled eels Anguilla marmorata in a Tropical River on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean

Ocean currents drive secondary contact between Anguilla marmorata populations in the Indian Ocean

“…However, a Sumatran spawning site could not be confirmed since species identification of small larvae was not possible. On the other hand, ages at metamorphosis obtained from otolith analyses of eels collected in the southwestern Indian Ocean (SWIO) showed such a large variation (60 to 180 d), that no spawning area location could be rejected on the basis of larval dispersal duration (Robinet et al 2003, 2008. So far, the only A. marmorata spawning ground discovered as a result of leptocephali captures overlaps that of A. japonica in the western North Pacific .…”

“…The overall sample consisted of 312 glass eels and elvers of total length ranging from 46 to 149 mm and 132 yellow eels ranging from 150 to 869 mm. Glass eels and elvers measuring less than 150 mm were considered to have recruited within the sampling year (Robinet et al 2003) and were used as temporal samples. 398 specimens were sampled in the western Indian Ocean (102 in Mayotte Island, 88 in Madagascar, 106 in Mauritius Island and 102 off Reunion Island) and 46 in rivers on the western coast of Sumatra (Fig.…”

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity of eel diadromy

“…In Taiwan, where both tropical and temperate species co-occur (at the margins of both geographical ranges), the tropical A. marmorata inhabits the upper river reaches, while the temperate A. japonica mainly colonizes the estuary and the lower river reaches (Shiao et al 2003). Indeed, A. marmorata elvers migrate up-river much more rapidly than temperate elvers (Robinet et al 2003), consistent with the hypothesis that eels evolve a migratory behavior in response to the relative habitat productivity prevailing in their geographical range.…”

Eel community structure, fluvial recruitment of Anguilla marmorata and indication for a weak local production of spawners from rivers of Réunion and Mauritius islands

“…All the Ré union data were extracted from the Ré union Fish Network survey (''Ré seau Piscicole Ré unionnais''), lead by the Association Ré unionnaise de Dé veloppement de l'Aquaculture (ARDA 1999(ARDA , 2000(ARDA , 2001(ARDA , 2002, except in the River du Mat (Robinet et al 2003b). In different seasons, the 13 permanent rivers (from 100 to 500 m in length) in Ré union were sampled at one to four stations (Fig.…”

“…fluvial recruitment, feeding ecology, growth dynamics, dwelling or nomadic behavior, insular and continental production of breeders) remains largely unknown. Only Marquet (1987) and Marquet and Galzin (1991) studied A. marmorata ecology in South-Pacific islands, whereas Robinet et al (2003b) described the upstream migration dynamics in the Ré union Island.…”