Fish Movement patterns
Telemetry Tags
Telemetry Receiver
A thorough understanding of the spatial and temporal scales of fish movement patterns is essential to fully understand the structure and function of food webs in coastal ecosystems. We currently are using acoustic telemetry techniques to track fish movements in two coastal ecosystems: Bahamian tidal creeks (snapper, barracuda, tarpon) and the Loxahatchee River in Florida (snook, snapper). In Bahamian tidal creeks, tidal water fluctuations likely drive daily patterns of fish movement. We have tagged dozens of snapper and barracuda species and are using extensive water level and temperature databases to explore factors that determine what are the major factors driving fish movement. Additionally, we are using telemetry to track potential ontogenetic shifts of fishes from shallow mangrove habitat to coral reefs. Although such ontogenetic shifts have long been inferred based on distribution of size classes, our data are among the first to directly demonstrate this shift. Further, we soon will have in place a spatially-explicit, geo-referenced, set of acoustic receiver buoys that will allow for real time tracking of fishes at one of our core study sites. This system will provide a framework in which numerous graduate research projects could be developed.
In the Loxahatchee River, FL, we are tracking fish movements in response to varying freshwater input regimes. We are especially interested in how snook movement is affected, and how this relates to the recreational snook fishery. This work is part of a broader program to evaluate the value of Loxahatchee River as a nursery habitat and how this value varies along a large-scale salinity gradient.