Anguilla+Anguilla

  =Anguilla Anguilla =



Kingdom:ANIMALIA Phylum:CHORDATA Class:ACTINOPTERYGII Order:ANGUILLIFORMES Family:ANGUILLIDAE Genus: ANGUILLA Species:A. ANGUILLA
 * Classification **

1.** Prevent the construction of dams, barriers, and underwater traps.
 * Endangered Species:** Since the 1970's the Anguilla Anguilla had been considered an endangered species. The number of eels have decreased in Europe because of overfishing, parasites, river barriers such as hydroelectric plants, and natural changes in the Atlantic Ocean.
 * Description of Habitat:**Part of the common eel's life cycle is spent in the sea, and part in freshwater rivers. It is often common on the shore. The Anguilla Anguilla lives in types of **benthic** habitats from small streams to shores of large rivers and lakes.
 * Migration Patterns:**Young eels grow up in a freshwater habitat where they saty from ages 6-18 depending on the gender. After this time, the eels migrate to the Sargasso Sea. Adult eels do not leave the Sargasso Sea but their larvaeare brought to the continental shelf of Europe by the Gulf Stream.
 * Population Estimates:** The most recent available figure in 2005 was 5,059 tonnes a decline of 76% since the peak in 1968.
 * Survival Trend:** Decreasing
 * Location of ecosystem:** The Anguilla Anguilla is found in the Atlantic Ocean,between 30-60 degrees latitude
 * Temperature**: 20-25 degrees Celcius
 * Salinity**:35-37
 * Geological Processes:**The Atlantic Ocean has a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.The Mid-Atlantic Ridge separates the Atlantic Ocean into two large troughs.The deep ocean floor is thought to be fairly flat, although numerous seamounts and some guyots exist. Several deeps or trenches are also found on the ocean floor.
 * Atlantic Ocean Currents:** Algulnas, Angola, Brazil, Azoles, Antilles, Benguela, North Atlantic
 * Appearance of Species:** Long, narrow bodies, with a continuous dorsal, anal and tail-fin. The skin is slimy, the lower jaw is longer than the upper jaw, and the scales are tiny or absent. The color of adults depends on their age; they are often brown, black or olive-green with yellowish bellies. Its length is approximately 100 cm (40 in) and its weight is up to 9 kg (20 lb).
 * Reproduction:** European eel males release sperm into the water in which female European eels have already laid eggs, thereby fertilizing the eggs. Very little is known about the actual spawning mechanism, and time to hatching is variable. European eels spawn during the late winter to early spring months. The female can lay from 2,000,000 to 10,000,000 eggs, but die soon after spawning. The only resource that female eels give to their offspring is enough food source to last the egg until hatching. After hatching, the larvae are completely independent and able to find food.
 * Anatomy and Physiology**: The Anguilla Anguilla has a swimbladder which is seperated from the secretory section by a sphincter. They are vertebrates and have an elongated, anguilliform body. Their lower jaw is slightly longer and projecting and their gill openings small and vertical, restricted to the sides. The dorsal fin origin is far behind pectoral fins; anal fin origin slightly behind anus, well back from origin of dorsal fin. They do not have pelvic fins.
 * Food Chain/Web:** The european eel diet is composed almost entirely of bottom-living organisms: in two British rivers, this species feed mainly on fish and oligochaeta; dipteran larvae, and trichopteran and ephemeropteran nymphs. European eels are preyed upon by larger eels and other fish and fish-consuming birds, such as cormorants and herons.
 * Economic Importance of Species:** European eels are both a food source and a predator of organisms in their ecosystem. They are consumed by birds and large predatory fish. They provide nutrients between marine and freshwater ecosystems because they migrate between those habitats. For humans, the anguilla anguilla are a popular food source for humans especially in Europe and Asia. These eels help consume the eggs of trout which helps prevent overpopulation in ecosystems.
 * Threats:** Over fishing for the eels, and the demand from Asia and Europe for them is huge and the price is increasing. An introduced parasite species, is suspected to impact the ability of the eels to reach the spawning grounds.The climate change and number of predators across Europe may also have an impact. The new Dam construction has caused a threat by blocking migration routes for the eels and causes many to die with the turbines down the streams.
 * Conservation Efforts**:The efforts to conserve the eels involve the European Council. They have enforced a law that all member states that contain natural habitats of the European Eel must establish eel management plans at a river basin scale. They hope to convserve through through various measures including reducing commercial and recreational fisheries, restocking, measures to improve habitats and make rivers passable, transportation of silver eels to the sea and monitor eel status in each basin.
 * Solutions:
 * 2.** Create laws limiting Anguilla Anguilla fishing and selling.
 * 3.** Recover and protect important areas in the living cycle of the anguilla anguilla.

1. What type of habitat does the Anguilla Anguilla live in? 2. What is the name of one of the biggest geological processes in the Atlantic Ocean and what does it do? 3. Why are the Anguilla Anguilla an important species to the economy and ecosystems?
 * Scavenger Hunt Questions:**

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