Does the eel use electric fields to navigate? — Science News, June 24, 1972
Many species of ocean fish [such as American eels] migrate over large distances. Some of them do so with such extreme accuracy that they can come thousands of miles to return to the stream or area where they were born. Naturalists naturally wonder how they do it. One of the suggestions is that they use electricity.
Update
It’s still a mystery how the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) navigates to its breeding grounds. But a growing body of evidence has shifted focus from electricity to magnetic fields. Experiments suggest that the American eel’s European cousin, A. anguilla, seems to follow a magnetic map to the North Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea, guided by an internal compass (SN Online: 4/13/17). In March, scientists proposed that freshly spawned American and European eels follow paths of increasing magnetic intensity from the Sargasso Sea to their freshwater homes. As adults, the eels may sense decreasing intensity to retrace the path to their birthplace.

Was the ‘American cheetah’ a cheetah at all?
AI agents aren’t ready to replace humans in behavioral research
A culprit for corrosion may have been operating under our noses
New Hubble images reveal a bizarre decagon over Saturn’s south pole
A massive study unveils the genetic underpinnings of fibromyalgia
The universe may have been building rocky planets almost from the start
UN aims to raise nearly $50 million for Nepal flood response
West Bank: UN rights report warns of forcible displacement from three refugee camps
UN tells the world: Stop making Africa look small
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine: WHO