Eel Biology


Book Description

As a food resource in both Eastern and Western countries, the eel is an important fish. Over the years, remarkable progress has been achieved in understanding the mysterious life cycle of eels that has fascinated scientists since the age of Aristotle. The spawning area of the Japanese eel was discovered and the migratory route of its larvae was elucidated. With the development of techniques for artificial induction of gonadal maturation, it became possible to obtain hatched larvae. Larval rearing to the leptocephalus stage, one of the most difficult tasks involved in eel culture, finally was achieved. By presenting these important breakthroughs, Eel Biology will be of great help in the development of effective management strategies for maintaining stable eel populations. With contributions by leading experts, this book is a valuable source for researchers as well as industry technicians in the fields of aquatic biology, aquaculture, and fisheries.




Spawning Migration of the European Eel


Book Description

Freshwater eels are almost infinitely improbable creatures. They spawn and die in the middle of the ocean, often associated with undersea mountains. Their tra- parent, leaf-like larvae move with ocean currents for months or years until they approach the mouths of freshwater rivers. Then they undergo a dramatic transf- mation in morphology, physiology and behavior. They move from their planktonic oceanic environment, migrate upstream and live for several years as apex fre- water predators. Then, almost impossibly, as they become sexually mature, they reverse their migration downstream to the ocean and back to spawning grounds to complete their life cycle. The dramatic changes in their life cycles are incredible. The efforts to unravel the details of their life history have been truly daunting. Much of the past research was the work of dedicated individuals who devoted their lifetime research to these fishes. Freshwater eels merit a separate chapter in almost any textbook dealing with ichthyology, marine biology or animal migration. We know a great deal about some aspects of the biology of freshwater eels. However, our understanding of their bi- ogy still resembles a work of art as much as a work of science. To some it appears like the sweeping brush strokes of a Japanese Zen landscape, to others it resembles the work of a French impressionist, and to still others it appears as magic realism.




Fish Bioacoustics


Book Description

This new definitive volume on fish auditory systems will interest investigators in both basic research of fish bioacoustics as well as investigators in applied aspects of fisheries and resource management. Topics cover structure, physiology, localization, and acoustic behavior as well as more applied topics such as using sound to detect and locate fish.




Fish Protection Technologies and Fish Ways for Downstream Migration


Book Description

This book offers a comprehensive review of current systems for fish protection and downstream migration. It offers the first systematic description of the currently available technologies for fish protection at hydropower intakes, including accurate and timely data collected by the authors and other researchers. It describes how to design and test them in agreement with the guidelines established from the EU Water Framework Directive. The book includes important information about fish biology, with a special focus on swimming and migration mechanisms. It offers a robust bridge between concepts in applied ecology and civil hydraulic engineering, thus providing biologists and hydraulic engineers with an authoritative reference guide to both the theory and practice of fish protection. It is also of interest for planners, public authorities as well as environmental consultants




Physiology and Ecology of Fish Migration


Book Description

Among the roughly 30,000 species of fish, migratory species account for only 165 species, but most of them are very important fisheries resources. This book presents up-to-date innovative research results on the physiology and ecology of fish migration. It focuses on salmon, eels, lampreys, and bluefin tuna. The book examines migratory behavior, sp




Freshwater Fishes of North-eastern Australia


Book Description

The ecology, systematics, biogeography and management of North East Autralia's native fish.




Eels Biology, Monitoring, Management, Culture and Exploitation: Proceedings of the First International Eel Science Symposium


Book Description

The freshwater eels, the Anguillids, have increasingly become the focus of attention for fisheries managers, scientists, researchers, policy makers, conservation bodies and other stakeholders. These species can be seen as a bellwether for issues affecting aquatic ecosystems – their steep decline and the management initiatives to try and reverse this trend, touch on subjects as diverse as disconnected waterways, loss of habitat, novel parasites, pollution, over-fishing and climate change. There are some 16 species of the Anguilla genus and all exhibit similar lifestyles, growing in waters often far-removed from their marine spawning grounds. These enigmatic, contradictory and confounding species share similar challenges and pressures wherever they are found. This book was generated from the 1st UK International Eel Science Symposium which was held at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) in June 2017. Hosted by the Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM), the ZSL, and the Environment Agency (EA), the Symposium was heralded as a success, with over 180 delegates in attendance. Many of the world’s top eel specialists attended or gave presentations across a diverse range of subjects. This was one of the Symposium’s, and now the book’s great strengths – its diversity of subjects and authors. Many countries are represented within the book, from across Europe and as far afield as New Zealand, South Africa, Vanuatu, French Polynesia, Japan, Canada and the USA. The EA and IFM have collaborated to produce this landmark book which includes a mix of cultural, scientific and management information which will be invaluable to anyone with a professional or personal interest in these mysterious fish, including ichthyologists, fisheries scientists and managers, aquaculture personnel, environmental biologists and ecologists, marine and freshwater biologists, vertebrate zoologists, animal behaviourists and students studying in all these areas. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where these subjects are studied and taught should have copies on their shelves. 5m Books




Slippery Beast


Book Description

Ellen Ruppel Shell’s Slippery Beast is a fascinating account of a deeply mysterious creature—the eel—a thrilling saga of true crime, natural history, travel, and big business. What is it about eels? Depending on who you ask, they are a pest, a fascination, a threat, a pot of gold. What they are not is predictable. Eels emerged some 200 million years ago, weathered mass extinctions and continental shifts, and were once among the world’s most abundant freshwater fish. But since the 1970s, their numbers have plummeted. Because eels—as unagi—are another thing: delicious. In Slippery Beast, journalist Ellen Ruppel Shell travels in the world of “eel people,” pursuing a burgeoning fascination with this mysterious and highly coveted creature. Despite centuries of study by celebrated thinkers from Aristotle to Leeuwenhoek to a young Sigmund Freud, much about eels remains unknown, including exactly how eels beget other eels. Eels cannot be bred reliably in captivity, and as a result, infant eels are unbelievably valuable. A pound of the tiny, translucent, bug-eyed “elvers” caught in the cold fresh waters of Maine can command $3,000 or more on the black market. Illegal trade in eels is an international scandal measured in billions of dollars every year. In Maine, federal investigators have risked their lives to bust poaching rings, including the notorious half-decade-long “Operation Broken Glass.” Ruppel Shell follows the elusive eel from Maine to the Sargasso Sea and back, stalking riversides, fishing holes, laboratories, restaurants, courtrooms, and America’s first commercial eel “family farm,” which just might upend the international market and save a state. This is an enthralling, globe-spanning look at an animal that you may never come to love, but which will never fail to astonish you, a miraculous creature that tells more about us than we can ever know about it.




Hornyheads, Madtoms, and Darters


Book Description

A collection of essays on nature, naturalists, and the natural history of fishes in central Appalachia. A nature lover’s paradise, central Appalachia supports a diversity of life in an extensive network of waterways and is home to a dazzling array of fish species. This book focuses not only on the fishes of central Appalachia but also on the fascinating things these fishes do in their natural habitats. An ecological dance unfolds from a species and population perspective, although the influence of the community and the ecosystem also figures in the text. Stuart A. Welsh’s essays link central Appalachian fishes with the complexities of competition and predation, species conservation, parasitic infections, climate change, public attitudes, reproductive and foraging ecology, unique morphology, habitat use, and nonnative species. The book addresses a selection of the families of central Appalachian fishes, including lampreys, gars, freshwater eels, pikes, minnows, suckers, catfishes, trouts, trout-perches, sculpins, sunfishes, and perches. These essays often refer to the works of naturalists who contributed to our knowledge of nature during previous centuries and who recorded their discoveries when science writing was less concise than it is today. Although many of these works are nearly forgotten, these early naturalists built a strong knowledge base that supports much of our current science and thus merits reexamination. Most people are not scientists, but many have an interest in nature and are, in their own way, naturalists. This book is for those people willing to peer beneath the water’s surface.