Why is the Sargasso Sea important for eels?
The Sargasso Sea is a spawning site for threatened and endangered eels, as well as white marlin, porbeagle shark, and dolphinfish. Humpback whales annually migrate through the Sargasso Sea. Commercial fish, such as tuna, and birds also migrate through the Sargasso Sea and depend on it for food.
Are all eels from the Sargasso Sea?
Even today, no one has ever seen eels spawning in the Sargasso Sea. Matter of fact, no adult eels or eggs have been found there.
How do eels find the Sargasso Sea?
American eels are the only species of freshwater eel found in North America. Eels have a complex lifecycle that begins far offshore in the Sargasso Sea where adults spawn. After eggs hatch, young eels drift inland with ocean currents into streams, rivers and lakes for over 3,700 miles. This journey may take many years.
What Gyre is the Sargasso Sea in?
North Atlantic gyre
“The Sargasso Sea lies within the sub-tropical North Atlantic gyre; such gyres cover ca 65% of the ocean surface.
Which eels breed in the Sargasso Sea?
European eel
European eel. This eel makes an astonishing journey to spawn, migrating from Europe to the Sargasso Sea, near Bermuda – and back again.
Do Japanese eels come from the Sargasso Sea?
rostrata, and then the Japanese eel, A. Larval catches of the two Atlantic eel species indicate that they spawn in partly overlapping areas of the Sargasso Sea and their small leptocephali are mostly found south of where warm southern surface water meets cold northern water and fronts are formed [6,7,9,10].
Is the Sargasso Sea a gyre?
The Sargasso Sea (/sɑːrˈɡæsoʊ/) is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre.
What does the word gyres mean?
: a circular or spiral motion or form especially : a giant circular oceanic surface current. gyre. verb. gyred; gyring.
Is the Sargasso Sea warm?
The sea reaches depths of 5,000–23,000 feet (1,500–7,000 m) and is characterized by weak currents, low precipitation, high evaporation, light winds, and warm, saline waters, all combining with the lack of thermal mixing to create a biological desert largely devoid of plankton, a basic food supply for fish.
Are there eels in the Atlantic Ocean?
RANGE: American eel are distributed between the Northwestern and Central Atlantic Ocean. They range from the island of Greenland southward along the Atlantic coast of Canada and the United States. American eel range even further south into Panama and throughout much of the West Indies and Trinidad.
Is the Sargasso Sea in the middle of the Atlantic?
A region in the gyre in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic is bounded by the Gulf Stream on the west, the North Atlantic Current on the north, the Canary Current on the east, and the North Equatorial Current on the south.
What kind of currents are in the Sargasso Sea?
The sea is bounded on the west by the Gulf Stream, on the north by the North Atlantic Current, on the east by the Canary Current, and on the south by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current, the four together forming a clockwise-circulating system of ocean currents termed the North Atlantic Gyre.
What kind of fish live in the Sargasso Sea?
Commercial fish, such as tuna, and birds also migrate through the Sargasso Sea and depend on it for food. While all other seas in the world are defined at least in part by land boundaries, the Sargasso Sea is defined only by ocean currents.
Who are the countries that protect the Sargasso Sea?
Several nations and nongovernmental organizations have joined together to protect the Sargasso Sea. These organizations include the Sargasso Sea Commission established on 11 March 2014 by the governments of the Azores (Portugal), Bermuda (United Kingdom), Monaco, United Kingdom and the United States.