Abstract
A research cruise was conducted in the eastern Indian Ocean off west Sumatra, Indonesia, in June 2003 to learn about the spawning and larval ecology of the tropical freshwater eels of the genus Anguilla in the region. A total of 43 anguillid leptocephali were collected during the cruise and they were genetically identified as 41 Anguilla bicolor bicolor, 1 Anguilla marmorata, and 1 Anguilla interioris. A. bicolor bicolor leptocephali were 44.1–55.5 mm TL and most of them were at the fully grown stage. Reexamination of the historical data of Jespersen (1942) also suggested a relatively low abundance of small size leptocephali (<40 mm) of this species off west Sumatra. Although the study area has long been considered to be a spawning site of A. bicolor bicolor, the distributions of leptocephali from the two surveys and the patterns of ocean currents in the region suggest the possibility that the main spawning area of this species is located farther offshore.
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Acknowledgments
We sincerely thank the captain, crew, and technicians of the R/V Baruna Jaya VII for their assistance during the research cruise. This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid numbers 1299346 and 12NP0201 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture, Japan. KT was supported by the Research Foundation “Touwa Shokuhin Shinkoukai” and the Eel Research Foundation “Noborikai.”
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Aoyama, J., Wouthuyzen, S., Miller, M.J. et al. Distribution of leptocephali of the freshwater eels, genus Anguilla, in the waters off west Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. Environ Biol Fish 80, 445–452 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-006-9143-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-006-9143-z