Abstract

The mechanisms of oceanic animal migration remain enigmatic. Adult Japanese eels start their long-distance oceanic migration from coastal areas to breed near the West Mariana Ridge. We tracked acoustically tagged eels released in the Kuroshio Current (KC) area near Japan (five silver-phase eels, three of which had impaired swim bladders) and a tropical/subtropical (TS) area near/in the spawning area (two yellow-phase and three silver-phase eels). We analyzed their active swimming and transport by water currents. The strong flow of the KC dominated the eels’ movements in the north, and TS area; their swimming influenced their movements. In the KC area, greater distances were covered at night than during the day, because eels swam in shallower layers with strong currents at night. Three and one eel in the TS and KC area in the upper 400 m showed counterclockwise and clockwise movements around the time of solar culmination, respectively. The meta-analysis showed that eels released at middle latitudes (20°–34° N) generally swam southward through currents, whereas those released at low latitudes (12°–13° N) generally swam northward through currents. Our study suggests the influence of the surrounding current and a potential effect of solar cues on the movements of Japanese eels.

Details

Title
Active swimming and transport by currents observed in Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) acoustically tracked in the western North Pacific
Author
Fukuda Nobuto 1 ; Yamamoto Toshihiro 1 ; Yokouchi Kazuki 1 ; Kurogi Hiroaki 1 ; Okazaki Makoto 1 ; Miyake Yoichi 2 ; Watanabe Tomowo 1 ; Chow Seinen 1 

 Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Yokohama, Japan (GRID:grid.410851.9) (ISNI:0000 0004 1764 1824) 
 Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Hatsukaichi, Japan (GRID:grid.410851.9) 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2634669400
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.