Glass eel recruitment, Anguilla anguilla (L.), in a Mediterranean lagoon assessed by a glass eel trap: factors explaining the catches

• Published in: Hydrobiologia Vol. 602; no. 1; pp. 79 - 86
• Main Authors: Crivelli, A. J, Auphan, N, Chauvelon, P, Sandoz, A, Menella, J.-Y, Poizat, G
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01-05-2008; Springer Netherlands; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agnatha. Pisces; Anguilla anguilla; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Aquatic ecosystems; Aquatic life; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Colonization; Ecology; Estuaries; Fish and Diadromy in Europe; Freshwater; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Lagoons; Life Sciences; Marine; Nonnative species; Rainfall-runoff relationships; Synecology; Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution; Water levels; Zoology; MED; Europe, Mediterranean Region; MED, France, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Rhone Delta; Catches dynamics; Environmental factors; Glass eel trap; Glass eel trap .Catches dynamics; Anguilla anguilla; Glass; Environmental factor; Trap; Capture; Recruitment; Aquatic environment; Vertebrata; Hydrobiology; Dynamics; Pisces
• ISSN: 0018-8158; 1573-5117
• DOI: 10.1007/s10750-008-9283-6

Although the colonisation of coastal rivers on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast by glass eels, Anguilla anguilla, has been well studied and understood, the colonisation of lagoons by glass eels is much less known. For the first time in the Mediterranean region, the installation of a glass eel fish-pass in Grau de la Fourcade channels in the Rhône delta enabled us to determine which factors could explain the variations in the catches of glass eel entering the Vaccarès coastal lagoon system. Whatever be the procedure chosen, the results of the model were the same: the temperature, the cumulative water discharge from the channel in the 5 nights before the catch (freshwater lure) and time that the drainage pumps were working explained the glass eel catches in the fish-pass in the Grau de la Fourcade. The tide and the cumulative discharge from the channel for only 3 nights before the catch did not seem to have a significant role in explaining catches. These results show that it is important that the lagoons should continue to receive rainfall runoff from their watersheds so that their water levels are high in winter, and that there is a good colonisation by glass eels as a result of a freshwater lure effect, when strong north winds expel low salinity water to the sea.