How does the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) retain its population structure during its larval migration across the North Atlantic Ocean?

Abstract

A Lagrangian model is presented of the current-carried migration of the leptocephali (larvae) of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) across the North Atlantic Ocean from the spawning area in the Sargasso Sea to the adult range in Europe and North Africa. The success of larvae in crossing the Atlantic Ocean and reaching particular latitude bins on the eastern side depended strongly on starting location in the Sargasso Sea and migration depth. In the model domain, silver eel spawners can develop strategies for spawning location and migration depth to preferentially target particular regions in the adult range. This observation may help to explain the presence of gradients in molecular markers in eel samples collected across Europe. Spawning in the period of late winter – spring maximizes the average food availability along the 2-year larval trajectory. The fastest transatlantic larval migration in the model is about 2 years, and the route to Europe takes most of the larvae past the east coast of North America in the first year. These model results are consistent with the hypothesis that the European and American eel (Anguilla rostrata) could separate themselves on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean on the basis of the different durations of their larval stages.