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Local Movements and Inshore Population Sizes of American Eels in Lake Champlain, Vermont
Author(s) -
Labar George W.,
Facey Douglas E.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1983)112<111:lmaips>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - hectare , homing (biology) , geography , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , population , mark and recapture , anguilla rostrata , hydrology (agriculture) , geology , biology , ecology , archaeology , demography , geotechnical engineering , sociology , agriculture
Local movements of 16 radio‐tagged American eels Anguilla rostrata were monitored in Lake Champlain, Vermont. Within water depths to 10 m, total displacement distances (sum of straight‐line distance between successive position fixes) ranged from 0.6 to 4.9 km per fish; these distances were not well correlated with tracking times (4 to 67 days). Displacement polygons defined by individual tracks had areas of 2.4 to 65.4 hectares. Some American eels showed substantial movement in the first few days after release, whereas others did not; most remained in shallow water, but some moved into deeper water. Fish were displaced up to 0.9 km between capture and release; only two returned to within 500 m from their capture site, indicating that little precise homing occurred. Inshore population‐size estimates from multiple mark‐and‐recapture methods varied from 232 to 636 fish/hectare (161–421 kg/hectare). Seven tagged individuals have been recaptured outside the study area: five at St. Jean, Quebec, one in Quebec City, Quebec, and one in St. Andres, Quebec.