How Speculation Became Accepted Truth: Evidence that Aotearoa New Zealand Freshwater Eels Do Not Seem to Spawn “Near Tonga” or “East of Samoa”
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Sabadel, Amandine
Miller, Michael
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Wiley
Abstract
For several decades, the assumption that Aotearoa New Zealand freshwater eels spawn near Tonga (for longfin, Anguilla dieffenbachii) or east of Samoa (for shortfin, A. australis) has been widely repeated across scientific literature, governmental reports, public resources and community narratives, despite limited direct evidence. These claims originated from early scientific speculation and were not updated as new evidence emerged. This illustrates how preliminary ideas can become entrenched as accepted truth through repetition and raises a broader question: how can new scientific findings be communicated effectively when they challenge long-standing narratives?.
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04 Earth Sciences, 05 Environmental Sciences, 06 Biological Sciences, Marine Biology & Hydrobiology, 31 Biological sciences, 37 Earth sciences, 41 Environmental sciences, Anguilla australis, Anguilla dieffenbachii, leptocephali, scientific uncertainty, spawning areas, Western South Pacific
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New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, ISSN: 0028-8330 (Print); 1175-8805 (Online), Wiley, 60(2). doi: 10.1002/nzm2.70055
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© 2026 The Author(s). New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2026 The Author(s). New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.