A speculation that has been a mystery for more than 100 years has finally been solved. After more than a century of speculation, researchers have finally proven that American eels actually migrated to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. A team led by Professors Julian Dodson of Universite Laval and Martin Castonguay of Fisheries and Oceans Canada reported having established migration routes for the species by tracking 28 eels equipped with satellite transmitters.

One of these animals reached the northern boundary of the Sargasso Sea after traveling as far as 2,400 km. The water area has long been suspected of being a breeding ground for the species. Details of the scientific evidence that solved the mystery have been published in the journal Nature Communications. This discovery brings to an end more than a hundred years of conjecture about the migration routes and location of America's only eel reproductive site.

"Eel larvae have been observed in the Sargasso Sea since 1904, indicating that the species reproduced in this area, but no adult eels have ever been observed in this part of the Atlantic Ocean," said Professor Dodson of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Université Laval, citing Science. Daily.

Previously, there had been many expeditions with the aim of catching eels at the mysterious gathering place of the larvae. But it all failed. The recent development of sophisticated satellite transmitters has opened up new opportunities for researchers. Julian Dodson and his team attached this transmitter to 22 eels caught in Nova Scotia and 16 eels from the Saint Lawrence River Estuary.

In the following weeks, 28 of these transmitters were reported to have reappeared in various parts of the Atlantic and transmitted the recorded data. Data analysis revealed that all eels adopted similar migration paths and patterns. Near the shoreline they seem to use salinity and temperature levels to find the high seas.

Based on the route reconstructed in this study, the researchers suggest that the migration of the American eel or Anguilla rostrata was carried out in 2 phases.