Satellite-tagged eels could save species

THE ancient mystery of where European eels spawn and how they get there could soon be solved.

A team led by the Environment Agency has fitted satellite tags to the slippery fish which migrate nearly 4,000 miles from Europe and Mediterranean countries across the Atlantic Ocean to spawn.

Aristotle pondered the life-cycle of the eel in the fourth century BC.

Prehistoric in appearance, the European eel is listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Finding out where eels spawn is crucial to further understanding of the biology of the species and to protect spawning areas.

The researchers located European eel populations on the Azores islands, close to the last previously tracked point on the eel migration route. Three were captured in a small river on the island of San Miguel, fitted with satellite tags and released into the Atlantic Ocean to begin their epic migration.

The tags are programmed to detach after eight months so the eels have until around this July to get to the Sargasso Sea before the tags float to the surface and send their data to via satellite. EA project chief Ros Wright said: “Migrating eels are driven to travel vast distances by an innate desire to spawn.

“We hope that at least one of these three satellite-tagged eels will become a superhero to the species by completing the migration lifecycle giving agencies and conservationists around the world the clues needed to protect this iconic species.”