Facultative catadromy of the eel Anguilla japonica between freshwater and seawater habitats

A synthesis of the ecological processes influencing variation in life history and movement patterns of American eel: towards a global assessment

“…The occurrence of several migratory groups characterized by different movement behaviour in continental waters has been reported for several Anguilla species (Tsukamoto and Arai 2001;Jessop et al 2004). After arrival at the coast, a portion of elvers establishes residency in estuarine or coastal habitats, another portion moves between freshwater and estuarine habitats (amphidromous) during the growth (yellow) phase, and another portion migrates upstream to spend the yellow phase in lake and river habitats (Haro and Krueger 1988;Jessop et al 2002Jessop et al , 2006.…”

“…As a result of habitat suitability being partly defined by productivity gradients, marine and estuarine residence should occur more frequently at higher latitudes (Jessop et al 2004), and higher densities could be supported in marine and estuarine habitats at high latitudes (see also Tsukamoto and Arai 2001) and in freshwater habitats in low latitudes. For example, differences in aquatic productivity along the Atlantic coast of Canada can be an order of magnitude higher in brackish estuaries than adjacent freshwater systems (Gagnon 2002).…”

INVESTIGATION OF GENETIC VARIABILITY IN THE EUROPEAN EEL (ANGUILLA ANGUILLA(L.)) IN LITHUANIA USING MICROSATELLITE DNA MARKERS

“…The smallest larvae found in the Sargasso Sea, south of Bermuda, suggest that spawning of the A. anguilla as well as that of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) occurs nearby (Wirth & Bernatchez 2001Mank & Avise 2003;Versonnen et al 2004;Dannewitz et al 2005;Palstra et al 2006). Meanwhile, the Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) spawning ground appears to be in the west of the Mariana Islands in the North Pacific (Katoh & Kobayashi 2001;Tsukamoto & Arai 2001;Ringuet et al 2002;Tseng et al 2003;Tsukamoto 2006). Species of the Anguillidae family, especially the A. anguilla (Virbickas 2000;Hansen et al 2001;Tzchori et al 2004), the American eel and the Japanese eel (Katoh & Kobayashi 2001) are of great commercial interest (Jing & Li 1999;Tsukamoto & Arai 2001;Ringuet et al 2002;Altun et al 2005).…”

“…Meanwhile, the Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) spawning ground appears to be in the west of the Mariana Islands in the North Pacific (Katoh & Kobayashi 2001;Tsukamoto & Arai 2001;Ringuet et al 2002;Tseng et al 2003;Tsukamoto 2006). Species of the Anguillidae family, especially the A. anguilla (Virbickas 2000;Hansen et al 2001;Tzchori et al 2004), the American eel and the Japanese eel (Katoh & Kobayashi 2001) are of great commercial interest (Jing & Li 1999;Tsukamoto & Arai 2001;Ringuet et al 2002;Altun et al 2005). Consequently, a decrease in European (Limburg et al 2003;Dannewitz et al 2005), American (Wirth & Bernatchez 2003) and Japanese eel (Tseng et al 2003) catches during the past decades in Europe, America and Asia, respectively, has inspired many studies on physiological (Ellerby et al 2001a, b), ecological (Poole & Reynolds 1998;Tzeng et al 1999;Okamura et al 2002;Bardonnet & Riera 2005;Palstra et al 2006) and genetic (Jing & Li 1999;Wirth & Bernatchez 2001Mank & Avise 2003;Tseng et al 2003;Dannewitz et al 2005) aspects of eel biology and an increased concern over the eel restocking strategy (Ringuet et al 2002).…”

“…A complex life cycle is characteristic of Anguilla sp. (Ellerby et al 2001b;Sasai et al 2001;Tseng et al 2003;Dannewitz et al 2005), since these fish species have a few morphological forms, inhabit a different environment depending on their life stage or age (Poole & Reynolds 1998;Tzeng et al 1999;Tsukamoto & Arai 2001;Powles & Warlen 2002) and migrate over long distances (Virbickas 2000;Katoh & Kobayashi 2001;Okamura et al 2002;Limburg et al 2003;Bardonnet & Riera 2005) to their spawning grounds. No one knows exactly where the European eels (Anguilla anguilla) spawning ground is (Lokman & Young 2000;Ringuet et al 2002).…”