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Do Japanese eels recruit into the Japan Sea coast?: A case study in the Hayase River system, Fukui Japan

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Abstract

The Japanese coastlines along the Sea of Japan (Japan Sea) have been thought to be one of the margins of the distribution range of the Japanese eel Anguilla japonica, and there is evidence that eels had naturally recruited into these areas several hundred years ago. However, recruitment there is uncertain recently, because there seems to be no study that reported glass eel or elver recruitment into the coasts along the Japan Sea for a couple of decades, and the eels inhabiting these areas were probably stocked by fisheries cooperatives. In order to improve understanding of the present-day natural geographic distribution range of this species, we searched for naturally recruited wild eels in the Hayase River system, Fukui Prefecture, which flows into the Japan Sea. Multiple approaches including investigation of glass eel recruitment, comparison of body size, and estimation of habitat use types was employed. During the observation period (from January to July 2010), no glass eels were found at the river mouth of the Hayase River in monthly sampling. Of eels collected in this study (n = 127), no eels smaller than the initial body size of eels for stocking were found in this water system and none were identified as being of wild origin based on the habitat use type classifications from otolith microchemistry (n = 48). This lack of evidence of Japanese eels recruiting into Japan Sea coast waters suggests most eels present there may be stocked eels. Japanese eels could have been distributed naturally along the Japan Sea coast more than in recent years, indicating a possible decrease of the natural distribution range of this species.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Torihama, Umiyama, Minami-Saigo, and Mihama Fisheries Cooperatives for their cooperation with this study, and K Kodama and T Maezumi for helping our eel sampling. This work was partly supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (D-0910) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Kenzo Kaifu & Izumi Washitani

  2. Fukui Marine Park Center, Fukui Prefecture, 18-2 Sekumi, Mikatakaminaka-gun, Fukui, 919-1464, Japan

    Hideaki Maeda

  3. Institute for East China Sea Research, Nagasaki University, 1551-7, Taira-machi, Nagasaki, 851-2213, Japan

    Kazuki Yokouchi

  4. Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8563, Japan

    Ryusuke Sudo, Michael J. Miller, Jun Aoyama & Katsumi Tsukamoto

  5. Department of General Systems Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 158-8902, Japan

    Takehito Yoshida

Authors
  1. Kenzo Kaifu
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  2. Hideaki Maeda
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  3. Kazuki Yokouchi
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  4. Ryusuke Sudo
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  5. Michael J. Miller
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  6. Jun Aoyama
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  7. Takehito Yoshida
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  8. Katsumi Tsukamoto
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  9. Izumi Washitani
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Correspondence to Kenzo Kaifu.

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Kaifu, K., Maeda, H., Yokouchi, K. et al. Do Japanese eels recruit into the Japan Sea coast?: A case study in the Hayase River system, Fukui Japan. Environ Biol Fish 97, 921–928 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-013-0193-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-013-0193-8

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