UK signs up to protect the Sargasso Sea

Posted by: Kevin Heath / 3 days ago

The UK has joined other countries in signing up to an agreement to protect the unique habitat of the Sargasso Sea. The Sargasso is a region of the North Atlantic that is dominated by the sargassum seaweed and is an important breeding and feeding ground for many species.

The boundaries of the Sargasso Sea are marked by major Atlantic Ocean currents:

to the north lies the North Atlantic current

to the east lies the Canary current

to the south lies the North Atlantic Equatorial current and

to the west lies the Gulf Stream.

This unique sea within an ocean plays an important role in many species life-cycle. The European and American eels go to the Sargasso to lay eggs and the larvae mature there until ready to make the long migrations back to the rivers. Loggerhead sea turtles also make their way to the Sargasso Sea to make use of the seaweed to hide from predators until they mature.

Unfortunately the currents that have made the Sargasso into such a rich marine resource are also putting the sea at risk. As well as carrying wildlife and nutrients the currents are carrying rubbish into the region and it is the location of the North Atlantic Garbage Patch. This is a concentration of non-biodegradable plastics that have accumulated in the middle of the ocean. The currents also bring with them other pollutants such as oil and shipping hold washout waste.

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Protection at last for the Sargasso Sea

The governments of Bermuda, the Azores, Monaco,United Kingdom and the United States have promised to work together to conserve the Sargasso Sea – a vast patch of mid-Atlantic Ocean known for its unique floating seaweeds that harbour rich biodiversity.

This is the first time an international alliance has been formed to protect this unique haven of marine life.

They have signed s a declaration in Bermuda’s capital Hamilton, promising to seek protection for the Sargasso Sea using international bodies that regulate areas beyond national jurisdiction, such as the International Maritime Organisation, regional fisheries authorities and the Convention on Migratory Species

“This is a truly historic occasion,” says David Freestone, Executive Director of the Sargasso Sea Alliance. “It is the first time an international alliance has been formed to protect an iconic high seas ecosystem, using existing legal international frameworks.”

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95% population decline in European eels spurs tracking research – more news

By attaching satellite and data storage tags to about 600 eels from different places in Europe the project scientists were hoping to map the route of the spawning eels.

Eels tagged to help scientists understand migration

January 2013. Nobody knows the underlying biological mechanisms of the European eel's migration. Thanks to an EU-funded research project called eeliad, now about to reach completion, biologists have revealed some of its secrets, including a better understanding of its biology and migration route.

All European eels living from Northern Africa to Iceland are believed to migrate thousands of kilometres to the Sargasso Sea (The Sargasso Sea lies in the middle of the North Atlantic) to spawn. Findings of newly-hatched eel larvae in the Sargasso Sea strongly support this theory. But no eggs or adult eels have ever been caught in the area.

600 eels tagged
By attaching satellite and data storage tags to about 600 eels from different places in Europe the project scientists were hoping to map the route of the spawning eels. "We could track the satellite tags as far away as the Azores. This suggests that the eels take a different route to the Sargasso Sea than previously thought. It seems as if they're saving energy by hitching a ride on the Azores Current," Kim Aarestrup tells youris.com. He is a senior scientist at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), in Silkeborg and one of the leading researchers behind the satellite tagging.

"Very little is known of the oceanic part of the eel's life history," says Martin Castonguay, an eel expert and research scientist at The Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, Canada, adding: "The most important thing the eeliad project provided is that it gave us the first observations of adult eel migrations in the open Atlantic Ocean for distances up to 1,300 km from the release point." Although he has not been a part of the project, Castonguay believes it has been "very successful".

Among other things the project scientists also tested the spawning ecology of the eels by using genetic research, combined with a fisheries biology technique for tracking fish movement called otolith microchemistryand modelling methods. The analyses were undertaken both on eel larvae collected in the Sargasso Sea and on glass eels collected from the coastline of Europe and North Africa. "Our genetic research showed that the eels living all across Europe mate randomly. This is very unusual for animals that are so widely distributed. It strongly indicates that the European eels are spawning in the Sargasso Sea and nowhere else," says Thomas Dammals, a research scientist at DTU who was involved with the genetic research in the project.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/eel-migration.html

Mysterious Eels' Mating Migration Tracked

Rare European eels from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia make an epic journey when it's time to mate. They leave rivers and brackish habitats, swimming hundreds of miles across the Atlantic to the Sargasso Sea, an open ocean region that is warmer, saltier, bluer and clearer than the surrounding waters.

This trek had remained a mystery to science since no eggs or adult eels have ever been caught in the Sargasso Sea. But researchers recently attached satellite tags to about 600 eels from different places in Europe and were finally able to map the route of the spawning fish.

"We could track the satellite tags as far away as the Azores. This suggests that the eels take a different route to the Sargasso Sea than previously thought. It seems as if they’re saving energy by hitching a ride on the Azores Current," researcher Kim Aarestrup, of the Technical University of Denmark, told youris.com.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/26201-mysterious-eels-mating-migration-tracked.html

Migrating Somerset eels tracked by camera

A high-tech camera is being used to track eels as they begin their migration to the North Atlantic from Somerset.

The acoustic camera has been placed in the Huntspill River to record the number of eels setting off on the 3,000 mile (4.800km) journey to the Sargasso Sea.

Scientists had previously been unable to record eel numbers, the Environment Agency said.

The cameras, which operate by using sound waves, were originally designed to detect cracks on oil rigs.

Environment Agency spokesman Pete Sibley said the introduction of the technology was "our first real chance to record and capture eel numbers by direct observation and increase our understanding of the creature's mysterious life cycle".

The eel population has suffered a 95% decline over the past 30 years as a result of over fishing, pollution and disease, the agency said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-16687544