Early Results on Marine Migration of Stocked and Transported Eels from the St. Lawrence: Insights from a Large-Scale Acoustic Tracking

Starting in 2011, migrating silver American eels originating from the trap and transport (T&T) and stocking programs in the upper St. Lawrence River had acoustic transmitters surgically implanted to determine if these eels continue their migration through the St. Lawrence Estuary up to the exit of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) maintain acoustic receivers covering the Cabot Strait between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Canada and could detect the tagged eels. Acoustic transmitters have been implanted in 225 migrating silver American eels to date.  Of the 150 American eels implanted with transmitters from 2011 and 2012, at total of 7 T&T and 17 stocked American eels have been detected by the Cabot Strait receivers.  It should be noted that wild migrating American eels impanted with transmitters have not been detected.  The detections of the migrating T&T and stocked small migrants were the first recorded migrating eels in North America by OTN receivers.  While the speed and timing of migration cannot be compared with wild migrants, the migration speed and timing was similar between T&T and smaller stocked American eels.