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Satellite-linked acoustic receivers to observe behavior of fish in remote areas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2008

Laurent Dagorn ,
Doug Pincock ,
Charlotte Girard ,
Kim Holland ,
Marc Taquet ,
Gorka Sancho ,
David Itano  and
Riaz Aumeeruddy
Laurent Dagorn
Affiliation:
IRD, UR Thetis, CRH, BP 171, 34230 Sète Cedex, France
Doug Pincock
Affiliation:
Amirix Systems, 77 Chain Lake Dr, Halifax, NS B3S 1E1, Canada
Charlotte Girard
Affiliation:
CLS, Division océanographie spatiale, 8-10 rue Hermès, 31520 Ramonville St Agne, France
Kim Holland
Affiliation:
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, PO Box 1346, Kaneohe, Hawaii 96744, USA
Marc Taquet
Affiliation:
Ifremer, CRH, BP 171, 34230 Sète Cedex, France
Gorka Sancho
Affiliation:
Grice Marine Laboratory, College of Charleston, 205 Fort Johnson Rd., Charleston, SC 20412, USA
David Itano
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, JIMAR, Pelagic Fisheries Research Program, 1000 Pope Rd. MSB, 312 Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
Riaz Aumeeruddy
Affiliation:
Seychelles Fishing Authority, PO Box 449, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles
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Abstract

Automated acoustic receivers are now widely used by biologists to study the behavior of fish. However, currently available acoustic receivers require physical recovery of the units to download stored data. Such operation is often difficult in remote study areas like in the open ocean. We present a new satellite-linked acoustic receiver (Vemco VR3-Argos) that allows downloading data through a satellite uplink (Argos). The VR3-Argos can last up to one year, sending GPS positions and tag data at regular time intervals. We illustrate the advantages of this new technology with tagging data from 121 fish of seven species (yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna, wahoo, dolphinfish, silky shark and oceanic triggerfish) caught and released around drifting fish aggregating devices (FADs) in the Western Indian Ocean, far from any land. In opposition with the classic acoustic receivers (Vemco VR2), the use of VR3-Argos allowed to collect data for several weeks after leaving the drifting FADs. Maximum residence times of 3 days for bigeye tuna, 7 days for skipjack, 8 days for wahoo, 10 days for silky shark and 15 days for yellowfin tuna, dolphinfish and oceanic triggerfish could be recorded. VR2 and VR3-Argos are equivalent in terms of quality of residence times data, however depth data obtained through satellites are aggregated in 8 classes for compression purposes, which leads to a loss of precision available with raw data. Future directions of this technology are discussed.

Keywords

FADAcoustic receiverFish telemetryTunaPelagic fish
Type
Research Article
Information
Aquatic Living Resources , Volume 20 , Issue 4: Fish Aggregating Devices as Instrumented Observatories of Pelagic Ecosystems , October 2007 , pp. 307 - 312
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, IFREMER, IRD, 2008

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