Japanese eel Anguilla japonica do not assimilate nutrition during the oceanic spawning migration: evidence from stable isotope analysis

Seinen Chow; Hiroaki Kurogi; Satoshi Katayama; Daisuke Ambe; Makoto Okazaki; Tomowo Watanabe; Tadafumi Ichikawa; Masashi Kodama; Jun Aoyama; Akira Shinoda; Shun Watanabe; Katsumi Tsukamoto; Sachie Miyazaki; Shingo Kimura; Yoshiaki Yamada; Kazuharu Nomura; Hideki Tanaka; Yukinori Kazeto; Kazuhiro Hata; Takeshi Handa; Atsushi Tawa; Noritaka Mochioka

doi:10.3354/meps08448

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MEPS 402:233-238 (2010) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08448

Japanese eel Anguilla japonica do not assimilate nutrition during the oceanic spawning migration: evidence from stable isotope analysis

Seinen Chow^1,*, Hiroaki Kurogi¹, Satoshi Katayama¹, Daisuke Ambe², Makoto Okazaki², Tomowo Watanabe², Tadafumi Ichikawa², Masashi Kodama², Jun Aoyama³, Akira Shinoda³, Shun Watanabe³, Katsumi Tsukamoto³, Sachie Miyazaki³, Shingo Kimura³, Yoshiaki Yamada⁴, Kazuharu Nomura⁵, Hideki Tanaka⁵, Yukinori Kazeto⁵, Kazuhiro Hata⁶, Takeshi Handa⁶, Atsushi Tawa⁷, Noritaka Mochioka⁷

¹National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, 6-3-1 Nagai, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 238-0316, Japan
²National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, 2-12-4 Fukuura, Yokohama, Kanagawa 236-8648, Japan
³Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 1-15-1 Minamidai, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan
⁴IRAGO Institute, 377 Ehima-Shinden Atsumi-Cho, Aichi 441-3605, Japan
⁵National Research Institute of Aquaculture, 422-1 Nakatsu-Hamaura, Mie 516-0193, Japan
⁶National Fisheries University, 2-7-1 Nagata-Honmachi, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi 759-6595, Japan
⁷Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan

*Email: chow@affrc.go.jp

ABSTRACT: During 2008 and 2009, a total of 12 adult Japanese eels Anguilla japonica were captured in the southern part of the West Mariana Ridge, the presumed spawning area. We compared the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) between the ‘Mariana silvers’ (terminal phase) and those of yellow and silver eels caught in rivers, lakes and coastal areas of Japan (initial phase). Profiles of stable isotope signatures between the initial and terminal phases were similar; both characteristically had a wide range for δ¹³C (–24.9 to –12.0‰ and –20.5 to –11.3‰ for the initial and terminal phases, respectively) and δ¹⁵N (6.5 to 18.4‰ and 9.0 to 18.1‰, respectively). Mesopelagic fishes, including several other anguillid species caught near the West Mariana Ridge, characteristically had a very narrow range of δ¹³C (–16.9 to –15.3‰) and a wide but lower range of δ¹⁵N (5.3 to 11.1‰) than the Japanese eels. The very similar profiles in stable isotopic signatures between the initial and terminal phase eels, distinct from those of Mariana mesopelagic fishes, indicate that Japanese eels do not assimilate nutrition from the marine environment during long (ca. 6 mo) spawning migration and retain the initial isotopic values of where they ceased feeding.

KEY WORDS: δ¹³C · δ¹⁵N · Starvation · Spawning migration · Anguilla japonica

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Cite this article as: Chow S, Kurogi H, Katayama S, Ambe D and others (2010) Japanese eel Anguilla japonica do not assimilate nutrition during the oceanic spawning migration: evidence from stable isotope analysis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 402:233-238. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08448

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