Where do our eels migrate to?

Mooney Goes Wild contributer Terry Flanagan shares his latest round of nature news.

Recent research published in the journal Scientific Reports appears to have discovered the answer to a long-asked question: where do our eels migrate to?

For many years now, we believed they travelled south to the Sargasso Sea. Before that, philosophers like Aristotle believed that they sprang up spontaneously from the mud, but this latest research adds to the story.

Every year, eels leave European rivers to travel in an epic migration to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic to breed for a single time, then die. Although this final destination has long been suspected, until now there has been no direct evidence.

But by fitting eels with satellite tags, researchers have now tracked the creatures on the final leg of the route. And they say the information will help in the conservation of the critically endangered species.

"This is the first time we've been able to track eels to the Sargasso Sea and we are delighted we have the first direct evidence of adult European eels reaching their spawning area," said Ros Wright of the Environment Agency, who led the research.

"Their journey will reveal information about eel migration that has never been known before."

Until now, it has been very difficult to study their migration across the ocean; previous studies have tracked adult eels all the way to the Azores, but from there the trail went cold.

The researchers have now tagged adult eels in the Azores, showing they can swim all the way to the Sargasso Sea.

"We knew they could get as far as the Azores, but that final leg was just undiscovered country," said Ros Wright.

"We thought if we could tag eels in the Azores then we might fill that gap, and we have managed this; we can confirm we have filled in that final leg of the journey to the Sargasso Sea."