Where Do We Go from Here? Using Data from Non-Target Surveys to Direct American Eel Research Efforts in Florida

The American Eel stock has been determined by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to be in a state of decline. Implicated in this decline are factors such as habitat loss and degradation, hydroelectric turbine mortality, commercial harvest, climate change, and disease. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission researchers have teamed up with fisheries projects across the state to gather information about Florida’s American Eels. Since February 2014, biological, age, condition, and Anguillicoides crassusparasite infection data have been obtained for hundreds of American Eels collected from systems throughout every region of the state. Combined, specimens ranged from elver- to silver-stage and 10 to 81 cm in total length. Active parasite infection rates and health indices varied by regions, and in the St Johns River, also by season and distance from the river mouth. Genetic fin clip samples were also obtained from fish in the Apalachicola River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico, and St Johns River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean, to compare population structure between the two coasts. We present the full study results and how these data will be used to direct future research and conservation efforts of American Eel in Florida.