Frontiers in Marine Science (Nov 2015)
Growth and seasonal behavior of Anguilla anguilla in the River Minho tidal freshwater wetlands
Abstract
The River Minho estuary, located on the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula, is a mesotidal estuary, partially mixed that during the period of high floods it tends to evolve towards a salt wedge estuary. The influence of spring tides extends approximately 40 km upstream and the tidal freshwater wetlands (TFWs) are located in the upper 30 km. The Minho estuary is part of a Natura 2000 site, which includes the entire international section of the river being considered a very important river concerning migratory fish species. In the River Minho TFWs several fish species have ecological and economic value (Salmo trutta, Alosa fallax, Platichthys flesus, Anguilla anguilla, Salmo salar, Alosa alosa and Petromyzon marinus). European eel, A. anguilla, is in Appendix II of CITES list, that includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival. Between January 2007 and December 2014, in a selected semi-enclosed area of TFW and using 5 fyke-nets, were captured 1303 eels. All eels were measured and weighted, ocular index was determined and also marked with pit-tags and released in the same area. During these 8 years of work, around 15% of the total captured eels were recaptured once, less than 3% were recapture twice, less than 1% three times and 3 eels were recaptured 4 times. Eels marked in 2009 are until now the ones that were recaptured more times. Biological data as eel growth, seaward migration state, seasonal differences of by-catch will be crossed with abiotic data namely river flow, precipitation and water temperature.
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