OCEANOGRAPHIC ASPECTS OF THE RECRUITMENT OF EELS TO THE BALTIC SEA

The processes by which eels arrive to the Baltic Sea are discussed in the light of an almost total lack of O+ eels in the Kattegatt and the Sound during 1996. The comparatively high elver abundance at the Skage rrak coast the same year indicates that this was due to a failure of t he glass eels to penetrate into the Kattegatt, which can be attributed to a lack of westerly winds during the winter and early spring. A ten tative scenario is a mainly passive surface advection south along the Swedish Kattegatt coast followed by an active migration of the O+ elve rs in a narrow, shallow coastal region through the Sound and into the Baltic.