New York Times quotes McCleave in article on eel migration, spawning
James McCleave, a University of Maine professor emeritus of marine sciences and an expert on eels, was quoted in a New York Times article on recent research about the fish. American eels spend their adult lives in rivers and estuaries from Greenland to Venezuela, but they share a single reproductive site in the Sargasso Sea, according to the article. For the first time, scientists have tracked American eels migrating to their spawning grounds in the Atlantic Ocean. “If we knew more about the routes adults take to the spawning area, we would be in a better position to evaluate how migrations might change under various climate scenarios,” said McCleave, who was not involved in the study. Until recent developments in aquatic satellite tags, tracking devices were too large to attach to the fish, the article states.