Yellow-stage American eel movements determined by microtagging and acoustic telemetry in the St Jean River watershed, Gaspé, Quebec, Canada |
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Authors: | I. Thibault,&dagger ,J. J. Dodson, F. Caron,&Dagger |
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Affiliation: | Département de biologie and Québec-Océan, UniversitéLaval, Québec (Qc), G1K 7P4 Canada; and Ministère des Ressources Naturelles et de la Faune, 3950 boulevard Harvey, Jonquière, Québec (Qc), G7X 8L6, Canada |
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Abstract: | The hypothesis that a part of the yellow American eel Anguilla rostrata sub-population of the St Jean River in eastern Quebec feeds in the brackish environment during summer and returns to the river to overwinter was tested. Three years of microtagging and the acoustic tagging and tracking of 40 American eels demonstrated that a part of the downstream migrants exploited the estuary as a summer feeding area. Upstream movement of some microtagged American eels provided support for the hypothesis that a part of those American eels returned to the river to overwinter. In addition to the demonstration of amphidromous behaviour of yellow eels, the study revealed that American eels in the estuary were active at night but homed to specific daytime resting sites. |
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Keywords: | acoustic telemetry amphidromy Anguilla rostrata microtagging nocturnal behaviour site fidelity |
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