Occurrence and habitat use of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) in running waters : lessons for improved monitoring, habitat restoration and stocking

To improve the management of the Europeaneel (Anguilla anguilla) in freshwater, it isessential to define important lotic habitats. Electrofishingdata from 289 wadeable, hard-bottom sites in 69Swedish coastal rivers and streams, originally surveyedfor salmonid monitoring, were used to evaluatethe effects of sampling- and habitat-related factors oneel occurrence. Probability of eel occurrence, asinfluenced by sampling procedure (sampled area,number of consecutive runs and ambient watertemperature) and habitat characteristics (size ofcatchment, dominating bottom substrate, shade, watervelocity, mean depth), was evaluated for small (totallength B 150 mm) and large ([150 mm) yelloweels. Data were analysed in a mixed presence/absencegeneralized linear model with dispersal (distance tomouth from sampled site), habitat and samplingrelatedvariables as covariates. The two modelsexplained variation in occurrence to 81.5% for smalleel and 76.2% for large eel. Probability of eeloccurrence decreased with distance from the rivermouth, and increased with sampled area, number ofruns, water temperature, coarser substrate and size ofriver. We suggest that future eel habitat restorationshould focus on lower reaches of larger rivers withsuitable coarse bottom habitats. Stocking of young eelshould be carried out in comparable accessible habitatsin the upper reaches where eel densities are low.The results also strongly indicate that eel may besampled together with young salmonids with DCelectrofishing in wadeable habitats.Ålyngel 2016-2018 Forma