Notes on the occurrence of two tropical species of Anguilla in reservoirs in south-eastern Sri Lanka and preliminary data on the populations |
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| Authors: | H WICKSTRÖM O ENDERLEIN |
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| Institution: | Institute of Freshwater Research, Drottningholm, Sweden |
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| Abstract: | Abstract. The occurrence and abundance of eels were investigated in five lowland reservoirs in south-eastern Sri Lanka. Paired fyke nets and longlines were used for sampling eels. Two tropical species of eel. Anguilla bicolor McClelland and Anguilla nebulosa McClelland, were caught. In two of the five reservoirs investigated only A. bicolor was found and in another two reservoirs both species were caught. Eels seemed to be absent from one reservoir. The CPUE in reservoirs with eel was between 0·13 and 2·60 eels of both species per fyke net and night, and the total weight was between 81 and 814g. A small capture-recapture experiment in Badagiriya, where eels seemed to be most plenliful, gave a population estimate of only six eels or 1·2 kg per ha (eels longer than 40cm). Such a low abundance was regarded as unrealistic. Stocks of eel could presumably, at least in some reservoirs, withstand commercial exploitation but more information is needed on recruitment, growth and migration before any advice can be given on the management of stocks. |
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