Pressure and temperature interactions on aerobic metabolism in migrating silver eels: results in vitro

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) migrates (6000 km) from European coast towards the supposed spawning area: the Sargasso Sea. This intensive and sustained swimming activity is performed without feeding and by using essentially red muscle i.e. aerobic metabolism. Temperature and hydrostatic pressure vary during migration and have known effects on energy metabolism, mainly on mitochondrial functioning. We raise the question about the existence of a pressure-temperature combination that optimizes energy metabolism. We have measured the maximal oxygen consumption (MO2) of red muscle fibres of silver eel (migrating stage) in a temperature range (5 to 25 degrees C) covering what can be reasonably expected during the migration. We have combined (random order) three temperatures (5, 15, 25 degrees C) with 5 different pressures steps from 0.1 to 10.1 MPa (corresponding to depths from surface to 1000 m). The results show that when an adequate temperature is chosen as a reference, pressure effects and pressure sensitivity depend on the temperature. Based on the fact that energy budget is limited in migrating eels, we consider that the best conditions are low temperature and high pressure.