Advancing tagging technology to discover the European eel spawning area (TAG-EEL)

European eel (Anguilla anguilla) have significant ecological, economic and societal importance, but became critically endangered as the natural population declined to a historical minimum. They live in freshwater habitats and migrate to the ocean to spawn, but the spawning area still remains an enigma. TAG-EEL will take advantage of innovations in tagging technology to solve this long-standing mystery. Laboratory experiments, using eels matured via assisted reproductive protocols, enabling spawning eels in captivity, will refine tagging methodology. Thereafter, silver eels collected from nature (obtained from legal fisheries), will be tagged with optimized techniques and technology, to identify the migration routes and spawning area.

TAG-EEL results will nurture the foundation of a novel methodology, leading to potential economic benefits for the tagging industry and improved applications for future studies on eel and other species of ecological, societal and economic importance. Specifically for eel, results will solve one of the longest standing enigmas, but also provide unpreceded knowledge regarding environmental conditions along the migration route and at the spawning area, supporting sustainable aquaculture development and conservation management of this species, especially considering on-going climate change.