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Article 2

Concepts for characterizating spawning biomass of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) in catchments

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T. ROBINET 1, 2*, A. ACOU3, P. BOURY 4, E. FEUNTEUN5
1UMR CNRS-MNHN 5178 Biologie des Organismes Marins et Ecosystèmes, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle,Ichtyologie, 43 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France
2Fish Pass, Bureau Expert Gestion Piscicole, 8 allée de Guerlédan, 350135 Chantepie, France
3ERT 52 Biodiversité Fontionnelle, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, Av. du Gal Leclerc, France
4Centre de Recherche sur les Ecosystèmes Littoraux Anthropisés (CRELA), UMR 6217 CNRS-Université de La Rochelle, Bâtiment Curie, Rue Enrico Fermi, 17000 La Rochelle, France
5UMR CNRS-MNHN 5178 Biologie des Organismes Marins et Ecosystèmes, Laboratoire Maritime et Musée de la Mer de Dinard, 17 Av. Georges V, 35801 Dinard, France
* address for correspondence: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Abstract. – Silver eels biomass production is a primary management target to be urgently achieved for starting the restoration of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) population. An assessment of the proportion of individuals actually escaping from catchments – and able to reproduce – compared to a theoretical pristine production under no human intervention, is of critical importance for preserving this resource, and EU urges Member States to implement such tools now. This preliminary approach, developed during the EU program INDICANG, proposes to clarify some of the basic concepts needed to implement assessment tools for a characterization of the production of spawning biomass in a catchment. These concepts rely mostly on the influence of the catchment context (conditions for the eel growth) on the biomass of future spawners produced, and on the notion of breeding potential (production potential of future spawners, because year-to-year effective downstream migration is unpredictable from the structure of the local eel stock). In order to allow its implementation in data-poor catchments, this assessment does not aim to be fully quantitative, but to give a semi-quantitative estimation of the silver eel potential production. After being reduced by coefficients of anthropogenic mortality (fisheries, hydroelectric turbines, dams and reservoirs), this breeding potential should give a reference value for defining the future management targets and their monitoring.

You are here: Volume 57 (2007) Issue 4 Article 2
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