Belt-Eel: The migratory behavior of silver eels in the Baltic Sea

Project

Production processes

This project contributes to the research aim 'Production processes'. Which funding institutions are active for this aim? What are the sub-aims? Take a look:
Production processes

Project code: TI-FI-08-PID2312
Contract period: 01.05.2020 - 31.12.2020
Purpose of research: Inventory & Assessment

The Baltic Sea and its tributaries are an important distribution area of the European eel. The Danish Belt-Sea with their three narrow straits Little Belt, Great Belt and Öresund provides a geographical bottleneck, which all Baltic Sea eels have to pass during their spawning migration into the western Atlantic. This geographic situation offers ideal conditions for studying the migration of silver eels from the Baltic Sea.
Together with different research partners from the Baltic Sea region the Thünen Institute of Fisheries Ecology is participating in an investigation of the migration behavior of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) in the Baltic Sea. This study was made possible by the installation of a receiver network in the three straits Little Belt, Great Belt and Öresund by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The installed receivers detect fish that was marked with acoustic transmitters when it passes these straits. The participation of various Baltic Sea areas ensures that a complete picture of the eel spawning migration in the Baltic Sea is obtained. Additional knowledge about the largely unknown spawning migration of the European eel is of great importance for stock management. The aim of this international cooperation is to collect information about the migration speed and the duration of the migration of eels in the Baltic Sea and to gain knowledge about the proportion of migrating eels that reach the exit of the Baltic Sea. This makes it possible to estimate the importance of the Baltic Sea for the production of potential spawners and the effect of anthropogenic influences such as e.g. restocking or fishing on a successful spawning migration.

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