Bomb radiocarbon dating and age estimation of European eel (<i>Anguilla anguilla</i>) of Norway

Abstract Age estimates from bomb 14 C dating conflict with a well-recognized age reading protocol (grinding, polishing and staining in the sagittal plane) for otoliths of European eel ( Anguilla anguilla ). Proper alignment of calculated hatch years for 14 C measurements taken from the earliest otolith growth—among the smallest otolith extractions to date for successful 14 C analysis due to the advent of gas-AMS—was not achieved using age estimates from an accepted method. The realignment of otolith 14 C values to a tropical bomb 14 C reference chronology, which is most applicable to the Sargasso Sea as the natal origin of European eel, led to an increase of the original age estimates by 8 to 32 years. A maximum age of approximately 46 years was determined for the European eel specimen with the most massive otolith, of which mass is a reasonable proxy for age and was instrumental in identifying age estimate discrepancies. By extending the otolith mass-to-age relationships from this study to the most massive otoliths available from archived otoliths of Norway, an increase of up to several decades from the original otolith age estimates was discovered, leading to support for a potential lifespan of 70–100 years in the natural environment.