American eel (Anguilla rostrata) substrate selection for daytime refuge and winter thermal sanctuary
J. P. N. Tomie A D , D. K. Cairns B F , R. S. Hobbs C , M. Desjardins C , G. L. Fletcher C and S. C. Courtenay A E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the Canadian Rivers Institute, Biology Department, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3, Canada.
B Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Box 1236, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 7M8, Canada.
C Department of Ocean Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada.
D Present address: Atlantic Coastal Action Program Cape Breton, 582 George Street, Sydney, NS, B1P 1K9, Canada.
E Present address: Department of Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue W, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada.
F Corresponding author. Email: david.cairns@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Marine and Freshwater Research 68(1) 95-105 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF15102
Submitted: 7 March 2015 Accepted: 30 November 2015 Published: 11 February 2016
Abstract
We addressed hypotheses that anguillid eels use mud as a substrate refuge only in the absence of substrate cavities, and that the winter distribution of eels in coastal bay and estuarine habitat is limited to waters warmer than the freezing point of fish tissue (~–0.7°C). In the seasonally ice-covered southern Gulf of St Lawrence, Canada, locations of summer fyke and winter spear fisheries indicate that American eels (Anguilla rostrata) are widely distributed in both summer and winter in shallow soft-bottomed bay and estuarine habitat. Captive eels in fresh water preferred mud substrates during summer, during pre-winter cooling and during post-winter warming periods, but in winter chose mud and cobble substrates at approximately equal frequencies. Plasma antifreeze was not detected in blood sampled from eels speared in mud under winter ice. Winter bottom water temperatures in an eel wintering site were below the approximate freezing point of fish tissue 29.9% of the time. Mud of eel wintering grounds is warmer than overlying water and appears to serve as a thermal sanctuary that allows eels to safely overwinter under ice-covered waters. American eels in the southern Gulf of St Lawrence spend ~67% of their annual cycle within the substrate.
Additional keywords: antifreeze proteins, aquatic infauna, burrows, substrate cavities.
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