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Getting eels from the Sargasso Sea for genetic analyses. (Photo: Michael M. Hansen, Galathea/science.au.dk)
European eels spawn in numerous areas: study
(DENMARK, 3/16/2011)
Danish researchers have established that all European eels from Iceland to Denmark and Morocco mate in all are areas when they gather to spawn in the Sargasso Sea and thus belong to the same population.
Detrimental environmental conditions and overfishing in just one European country thus adversely affect European eels in all the others, the biologists said.
The genetic analyses were carried out by Professor Michael M Hansen of the Department of Biological Sciences and Research Scientist Thomas Damm Als of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Their results were recently published in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology.
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| Professor Michael M Hansen. (Photo: Department of Biological Sciences) |
In the most extensive genetic investigation of eels ever conducted, researchers concluded that after the European eels traverse the numerous thousands of km from the European coasts to the Sargasso Sea, they spawn in all directions.
“It’s most unusual that individuals of the same species – such as the eels in Iceland and Morocco, which live so far from each other geographically – are not genetically different or adapted to local temperature and environmental conditions,” noted Als.
The scientists are now investigating how the eel has genetically managed to live in climates ranging from nearly Arctic to sub-tropical.
Figuring out whether the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is split into different populations is vital for discerning how to best protect the species.
“Since all the European eels belong to the same population, it’s no good just looking after them locally, for example within Denmark’s borders. If the eel has poor conditions in countries like Denmark or Spain, this has a negative impact on the total population, and means a smaller increase of new glass eels in the entire range,” Hansen explained.
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| Eel larva. (Photo: Peter Munk, DTU Aqua) |
The species’ migration is now just 2 per cent of what it was in 1980. The eel is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) list of endangered species under the category of “critically endangered.”
The Galathea 3 expedition in 2007 allowed Danish scientists to collect 271 European eel larvae at different sites stretching across 600 km in the Sargasso Sea, as well as 1,010 glass eels from estuaries in Iceland and Morocco.
The project is led by a research group headed by Hansen and Als plus scientists from the University of Copenhagen, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and researchers in Canada, Germany and Belgium.
Related articles:
- Survival of Swedish eels rises by 30 pc
- European eel fishing suspended for 10 years
By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media
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