Acronym NA
Category
Fisheries
Title The extreme low cost swimming of the European eel Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator C. Tudorache Coordinator email c.tudorache@biology.leidenuniv.nl
Coordinator institution
IBL - Leiden University; Institute Biology Leiden (Netherlands)
Institutions involved
NWO - Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Netherlands) ,
Start year 2010 End year 2015 Funding (€) € 250,000 Website https://www.nwo.nl/en/projects/11731 Summary The European eel populations are threatened by extinction. The eel has high economical value for fisheries and aquaculture. Little is known about the migration and reproduction of the eel. The smallest larvae have been found in the Sargasso Sea, but a mature eel has never been found in the ocean. It is likely that silver eels migrate, within 6 months, over about 6000 km at a depth of 200-2000 m, in complete darkness, with temperatures below 10ºC and a water pressure up to 200 atm. Tracking eels on their spawning migration would provide a wealth of new information. Many attempts to tag and follow eels to their migration grounds were unsuccessful in the past. The reason was mainly due to tracking devices that interfere with free swimming of migrating eels. Available devices have a positive buoyancy and high drag due to their unnatural design. Eels are extremely efficient swimmers; it has been shown that, in terms of energy expenditure, eels swim 5 times more efficiently than trout. Their extremely low cost of transport is crucial for swimming across the Atlantic Ocean. Additional drag and/or interference with swimming mode will enlarge their cost of transport such that they cannot reach their spawning grounds. For tracking devices with minimal interference two requirements have to be met for: 1) neutral buoyancy and 2) minimal drag. Thus far no studies have been performed to investigate the interference of tracking devices. The present study aims to investigate the swimming capacity and energetics of migrating silver eels in combination with their migration behaviour and biomechanics, with emphasis on interference of different designs of tracking devices on swimming mode and cost of transport. These data can be used to a) elicit their supreme swimming capability and b) develop new tags in order to follow the migration of European eels in the open ocean.
Keywords
Fish;
Eel;
Fish biology;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
Marine Region Map
