Application of otolith microchemistry to estimate the migratory history of Japanese eel Anguilla japonica on the Sanriku Coast of Japan

The age and migratory history of the Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel, collected in Miyako Bay along the Sanriku coast of Japan, was examined using the otolith microstructure and analysis of strontium (Sr) and calcium (Ca) concentrations conducted with wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometry by an electron microprobe. The line analysis of Sr : Ca ratios along the life history transect of each otolith showed a peak (ca. 15–17 × 10−3) which corresponded with the period of their leptocephalus and early glass eel stages in the ocean. The mean Sr : Ca ratios from the elver mark to the otolith edge indicated that there were eels with several general categories of migratory history, including sea eels that never entered freshwater (average Sr : Ca ratios, ≥6.0 × 10−3), and others that entered freshwater for brief periods but returned to the estuary or bay. This evidence of the occurrence of sea eels in this northern area indicates that Japanese eels of the Sanriku coast do not necessarily migrate into freshwater rivers during recruitment as do glass eels at the beginning of their growth phase; even those that do enter freshwater may later return to the marine environment. Thus, anguillid eel migrations into freshwater are clearly not an obligatory migratory pathway, but rather a facultative catadromy with seawater or estuarine residents as an ecophenotype.