Mean age and migration patterns of Anguilla anguilla (L.) glass eels from three French estuaries (Somme, Vilaine and Adour Rivers)       [RESEARCH ARTICLE]

Yves Désaunay; Raymonde Lecomte-Finiger; Daniel Guérault

doi:10.2478/v10086-012-0023-1

Yves Désaunay
Raymonde Lecomte-Finiger
Daniel Guérault

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10086-012-0023-1

Keywords: glass eel, migration, age, otolith structure, river estuaries

Abstract

Glass eels were sampled, according to the 1991 EIFAC Working Party recommendation (Anon., 1991), in three estuaries, about 800 km apart along the French coast. Only preliminary data are presented here for the peak of immigration in February – March 1992. Biometrics, otolith structure and estimates of larval duration lead to several assumptions on the early life dynamics. Results show that: i) the body size, the otolith development and the mean age are not correlated with the latitude; ii) the migration over the continental shelf is not reflected in the otolith proportionally to the shorter distance from the shelf edge to the estuary; iii) marginal structures of the otolith could be related to the delay before entering freshwater.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:

Y. Désaunay [+], D. Guérault
IFREMER, Rue de l’lle d’Yeu, BP 1049 44037 NANTES cedex 01, France
R. Lecomte-Finiger
Université de Perpignan, Laboratoire de Biologie Marine, Faculté des Sciences, Avenue de Villeneuve, 66025 PERPIGNAN, France