WASHINGTON: Some 30 species of eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea, but only two return to live out their days in fresh water.
The first time in history, an adult American eel has been spotted and documented in the Sargasso Sea. The discovery brings a bit of closure to a scientific mystery more than 100 years old.
Scientists have long documented the presence of eel larvae in the Sargasso Sea, suggesting the little-understood species travels there to spawn. But an adult had never actually been seen there until now.
A team of scientists in Canada affixed satellite trackers to 22 eels captured in Nova Scotia and 16 from the St. Lawrence Estuary. The effort was led by Julian Dodson, a professor at Laval University, Canada’s oldest educational institution.
Several weeks after capture and release, 28 trackers resurfaced and pinged orbiting satellites, revealing their location in the middle of the Atlantic. The eels all took roughly the same path to the Sargasso Sea. Ocean data suggest the eels used differences in temperature and salinity to find their way to the spawning grounds.
