A German research team will set out from Bermuda this week to study the mysterious spawning habits of European eels.Reinhold Hanel said the research could help to protect the species, which has suffered a huge decline in numbers.Very little is known about how and where the eels spawn. Researchers have found that very young eels caught near the Sargasso Sea are likely to have spawned in the area. “It’s common sense, but still unproven,” Dr Hanel said. “It’s a huge area, and we’re not 100 percent sure where they are spawning.”For centuries it was a mystery how and where the eels spawned because no juvenile European eels were recorded.It was only in the 19th century that researchers discovered that leptocephali, originally believed to be a completely different species, were actually juvenile European eels.“They go through a dramatic metamorphosis, so they look very different,” Dr Hanel said. “The juveniles actually have both sets of gonads. At a certain stage they decide to be male or female but what the cause is, we don’t know.”He said that previous studies have attempted to track the eels with satellite tags as they migrate into the Atlantic from the rivers and streams where they spend most of their lives, but a large number of the tagged animals were killed by predators.“The record is 1,800km, but this is still far away from the Sargasso Sea. On the way to the Island, we released several tagged eels into the Atlantic. We’re hoping that they will have a chance to go to their spawning areas,” he said.“In an ideal world the pop-up tags will pop up where we find the smallest larvae or even eggs. That is not likely, but we want to narrow down the spawning grounds.”Both European and American eel species are believed to spawn in different areas of the Sargasso Sea, but there is some degree of overlap in the spawning grounds.Eels have been reported in Bermuda’s waters however it is not known which species has been seen.“We could work it out in two hours, but first we have to catch one,” Dr Hanel said.“There are also hybrids of the two species, but they are only found in Iceland.“Why do they wind up in the middle of the two habitats, we don’t know. There are a lot of things that are not fully understood.”By learning more about the spawning habits of the animals, he hopes to find ways to help restore the population, which has fallen dramatically.Despite being classified as critically endangered, European eels are still a popular food item in some countries.Attempts to have the animals spawn in captivity have been unsuccessful so juveniles are removed from the wild for farming efforts. This has left fewer eels able to breed and caused their numbers to fall even further.Parasites and barriers to migration, such as damns and hydroelectric plants, have also been blamed for a portion of the species decline.Laws preventing the export of European eels to China could help reduce fishing pressures on the species, Dr Hanel said.However, he added, in some areas American eels have been illegally introduced to Europe to bolster the numbers.