The waters of the Northeast were once wedge - full of American eels , which lived in fresh water rivers and estuary before float hundreds of geographical mile each class to breed in the Sargasso Sea . However , thanks to development and hydroelectric dam construction , the eels have recede 80 per centum of their habitat , Newsweekreports . Now , the once - rich Pisces isdwindling in population — making it all the more important for conservationists to ensure they make it safely to their only known breeding solid ground .
Between 1904 to 1922 , researchersfound eel larva in the Sargasso Sea , an alga - copious patch of ocean in the North Atlantic that help as home to a immense array of divers marine coinage . For more than a century , scientist have assumed that the ocean was the eel ' master reproductive hub . However , they had never find the fish actually breeding there , nor did they have scientific information to support that they actually travel so far away to spawn . So Canadian investigator attached satellite transmitters to 38 American eel , and tracked their journeying to see where they ended up .
While not all of the eel made it to their concluding address , academician were able to pursue one Pisces for 1500 miles — all the style from the Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia to the Sargasso Sea . The experimentation provided researcher with concrete proof that the annual migration subsist , the work ’s authorsexplain in the journalNature Communications .
Not only might this knowledge help protect American eels — which are lean as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN)Red Listand value as " jeopardise " in Canada — it also shed newfangled light on the life cycle of an otherwise elusive species .
“ We knew that millions of American eel migrated to reproduce , but no one had yet observe adult in the overt ocean or the Sargasso Sea . For a scientist this was a entrancing mystery story , ” one of the study ’s authors , Professor Julian Dodson of Université Laval in Québec , said in apress statement .
[ h / tNewsweek ]
