Two morphological characters were examined in 4099 anguillid glass eels sampled in four south‐western Indian Ocean islands, and resulting identifications were tested using genetic analysis. Distance between the origin of the dorsal and anal fins as related to total length and tail and caudal fin pigmentation enabled formulation of a useful field identification key, which was able to discriminate 4036 glass eels of the regional...

The spawning area location and the larval migration characteristics of Anguilla mossambica were studied through the examination of early life‐history traits (ELHT) inferred from otolith microstructural analyses of 122 glass A. mossambica collected along the eastern coast of Madagascar, in the south‐western Indian Ocean. Backcalculated hatching dates of leptocephali that recruited between November 2005 and February 2006 suggest...

Thirty migrating silver eels Anguilla anguilla were collected in a river system where algal blooms occurred yearly. Fifty per cent of eel livers were contaminated by microcystin‐LR (mean ± s . d . toxin level: 28·1 ± 22·4 ng g −1 ). Contaminated silver ( v. healthy) eels had lower fish condition. Consequences of this impact for the breeding potential of these migrating eels are discussed.

Maturing sub‐adults of two species of anguillid eels (a female Anguilla bicolor bicolor and a male Anguilla marmorata ) were collected for the first time at Réunion Island, western Indian Ocean. Both were silver eels, i.e. maturing eels at the onset of their spawning migration, and characterized by advanced sexual maturation that has been only observed in Anguilla dieffenbachii from New Zealand.