Species Profiles: Life Histories and Environmental Requirements of Coastal Fishes and Invertebrates (North Atlantic) - American Eel

摘要

Species profiles are literature summaries of taxonomy, life history, and environmental requirements of coastal fishes and aquatic invertebrates. They are prepared to assist with impact assessments. The American eel is an ecologically and economically important catadromous species that occupies freshwater streams, rivers, brackish estuaries, and the open ocean during various phases of its life cycle. Adult eels apparently spawn in the Sargasso Sea, and ocean currents transport the developing larvae northward until the young metamorphose into juveniles capable of swimming shoreward and moving upstream into coastal areas, estuaries, and rivers. Alteration of patterns of freshwater inflows to estuaries and bays could affect upstream migrations.