Acoustic telemetry and fisheries management Crossin, Glenn T.; Heupel, Michelle R.; Holbrook, Christopher M. ...
Ecological applications,
June 2017, Volume:
27, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This paper reviews the use of acoustic telemetry as a tool for addressing issues in fisheries management, and serves as the lead to the special Feature Issue of Ecological Applications titled ...Acoustic Telemetry and Fisheries Management. Specifically, we provide an overview of the ways in which acoustic telemetry can be used to inform issues central to the ecology, conservation, and management of exploited and/or imperiled fish species. Despite great strides in this area in recent years, there are comparatively few examples where data have been applied directly to influence fisheries management and policy. We review the literature on this issue, identify the strengths and weaknesses of work done to date, and highlight knowledge gaps and difficulties in applying empirical fish telemetry studies to fisheries policy and practice. We then highlight the key areas of management and policy addressed, as well as the challenges that needed to be overcome to do this. We conclude with a set of recommendations about how researchers can, in consultation with stock assessment scientists and managers, formulate testable scientific questions to address and design future studies to generate data that can be used in a meaningful way by fisheries management and conservation practitioners. We also urge the involvement of relevant stakeholders (managers, fishers, conservation societies, etc.) early on in the process (i.e., in the co-creation of research projects), so that all priority questions and issues can be addressed effectively.
The partial pressure of CO
in the oceans has increased rapidly over the past century, driving ocean acidification and raising concern for the stability of marine ecosystems
. Coral reef fishes are ...predicted to be especially susceptible to end-of-century ocean acidification on the basis of several high-profile papers
that have reported profound behavioural and sensory impairments-for example, complete attraction to the chemical cues of predators under conditions of ocean acidification. Here, we comprehensively and transparently show that-in contrast to previous studies-end-of-century ocean acidification levels have negligible effects on important behaviours of coral reef fishes, such as the avoidance of chemical cues from predators, fish activity levels and behavioural lateralization (left-right turning preference). Using data simulations, we additionally show that the large effect sizes and small within-group variances that have been reported in several previous studies are highly improbable. Together, our findings indicate that the reported effects of ocean acidification on the behaviour of coral reef fishes are not reproducible, suggesting that behavioural perturbations will not be a major consequence for coral reef fishes in high CO
oceans.
Telemetry is an increasingly common tool for studying the ecology of wild fish, with great potential to provide valuable information for management and conservation. For researchers to conduct a ...robust telemetry study, many essential considerations exist related to selecting the appropriate tag type, fish capture and tagging methods, tracking protocol, data processing and analyses, and interpretation of findings. For telemetry-derived knowledge to be relevant to managers and policy makers, the research approach must consider management information needs for decision-making, while end users require an understanding of telemetry technology (capabilities and limitations), its application to fisheries research and monitoring (study design), and proper interpretation of results and conclusions (considering the potential for biases and proper recognition of associated uncertainties). To help bridge this gap, we provide a set of considerations and a checklist for researchers to guide them in conducting reliable and management-relevant telemetry studies, and for managers to evaluate the reliability and relevance of telemetry studies so as to better integrate findings into management plans. These considerations include implicit assumptions, technical limitations, ethical and biological realities, analytical merits, and the relevance of study findings to decision-making processes.
The generalized energy budget for fish (i.e., Energy Consumed=Metabolism+Waste+Growth) is as relevant today as when it was first proposed decades ago and serves as a foundational concept in fish ...biology. Yet, generating accurate measurements of components of the bioenergetics equation in wild fish is a major challenge. How often does a fish eat and what does it consume? How much energy is expended on locomotion? How do human-induced stressors influence energy acquisition and expenditure? Generating answers to these questions is important to fisheries management and to our understanding of adaptation and evolutionary processes. The advent of electronic tags (transmitters and data loggers) has provided biologists with improved opportunities to understand bioenergetics in wild fish. Here, we review the growing diversity of electronic tags with a focus on sensor-equipped devices that are commercially available (e.g., heart rate/electrocardiogram, electromyogram, acceleration, image capture). Next, we discuss each component of the bioenergetics model, recognizing that most research to date has focused on quantifying the activity component of metabolism, and identify ways in which the other, less studied components (e.g., consumption, specific dynamic action component of metabolism, somatic growth, reproductive investment, waste) could be estimated remotely. We conclude with a critical but forward-looking appraisal of the opportunities and challenges in using existing and emerging electronic sensor-tags for the study of fish energetics in the wild. Electronic tagging has become a central and widespread tool in fish ecology and fisheries management; the growing and increasingly affordable toolbox of sensor tags will ensure this trend continues, which will lead to major advances in our understanding of fish biology over the coming decades.
There is a knowledge gap in descriptions of sound production in freshwater fishes. Here, we provide the first description of sound production in rock bass (
Ambloplites rupestris
) in their natural ...habitat. We used an action camera to record six calls from a rock bass in Stoney Lake, Ontario, and two calls from a rock bass in the Otonabee River, Ontario. Calls were associated with opening the mouth, flaring the opercula, and moving the pectoral and median fins erratically while the fish approached a novel object (our camera anchor). Rock bass calls ranged from 0.3 to 28.6 (mean = 9.32) s in duration and consisted of 2–62 sound pulses (mean = 22.7). Individual sound pulses had a mean duration of 0.065 s and a mean interval of 0.43 s. Pulse frequency was bimodal with a mean lower peak at 158 Hz and a mean upper peak at 362 Hz. We compared the calls of rock bass to those of other centrarchids from the literature and found that the sounds were structurally similar. Future studies should investigate rock bass sound production in captivity, the mechanisms of sound production in rock bass, the role of acoustics in rock bass ecology, and systematically describe sounds so they may be used in passive acoustic monitoring.
The assumption that animals released from fishing gears survive has frequently been scrutinized by researchers in recent years. Mortality estimates from these research efforts can be incorporated ...into management models to ensure the sustainability of fisheries and the conservation of threatened species. Post‐release mortality estimates are typically made by holding the catch in a tank, pen or cage for short‐term monitoring (e.g. 48 h). These estimates may be inaccurate in some cases because they fail to integrate the challenges of the wild environment. Most obvious among these challenges is predator evasion. Stress and injury from a capture experience can temporarily impair physiological capacity and alter behaviour in released animals, a period during which predation risk is likely elevated. In large‐scale commercial fisheries, predators have adapted their behaviour to capitalize on impaired fishes being discarded, while in recreational catch‐and‐release fisheries, exercise and air exposure can similarly impede the capacity for released fish to evade opportunistic predators. Owing to the indirect and often cryptic nature of this source of mortality, very few studies have attempted to document it. A survey of the literature demonstrated that <2% of the papers in the combined realms of bycatch and catch‐and‐release have directly addressed or considered post‐release predation. Future research should combine field telemetry and laboratory studies using both natural and simulated predation encounters and incorporate physiological and behavioural endpoints. Quite simply, predation is an understudied and underappreciated contributor to the mortality of animals released from fishing gears.
Summary
Aquatic chemical ecology is an important and growing field of research that involves understanding how organisms perceive and respond to chemical cues in their environment. Research assessing ...the preference or avoidance of a water source containing specific chemical cues has increased in popularity in recent years, and a variety of methods have been described in the scientific literature. Two‐current choice flumes have seen the greatest increase in popularity, perhaps because of their potential to address the broadest range of research questions.
Here, we review the literature on two‐current choice flumes and show that there is a clear absence of standardized methodologies that make comparisons across studies difficult. Some of the main issues include turbulent flows that cause mixing of cues, inappropriate size of choice arenas for the animals, short experiments with stressed animals, failure to report how experiment and researcher biases were eliminated, general underreporting of methodological details, underutilization of collected data and inappropriate data analyses.
In this review, we present best practice guidelines on how to build, test and use two‐current choice flumes to measure the behavioural responses of aquatic animals to chemical cues, and provide blueprints for flume construction. The guidelines include steps that can be taken to avoid problems commonly encountered when using two‐current choice flumes and analysing the resulting data.
This review provides a set of standards that should be followed to ensure data quality, transparency and replicability in future studies in this field.
Fish can become stranded when water levels decrease, often rapidly, as a result of anthropogenic (e.g., canal drawdown, hydropeaking, vessel wakes) and natural (e.g., floods, drought, winter ice ...dynamics) events. We summarize existing research on stranding of fish in freshwater, discuss the sources, consequences, and mitigation options for stranding, and report current knowledge gaps. Our literature review revealed that ∼65.5% of relevant peer-reviewed articles were found to focus on stranding associated with hydropower operations and irrigation projects. In fact, anthropogenic sources of fish stranding represented 81.8% of available literature compared to only 19.9% attributed to natural fish stranding events. While fish mortality as a result of stranding is well documented, our analysis revealed that little is known about the sublethal and long-term consequences of stranding on growth and population dynamics. Furthermore, the contribution of stranding to annual mortality rates is poorly understood as are the potential ecosystem-scale impacts. Mitigation strategies available to deal with stranding include fish salvage, ramping rate limitations, and physical habitat works (e.g., to contour substrate to minimize stranding). However, a greater knowledge of the factors that cause fish stranding would promote the development and refinement of mitigation strategies that are economically and ecologically sustainable.
► When water levels decrease in freshwater ecosystems, fish can become stranded. ► It is unknown whether fish stranding contributes significantly to mortality rates. ► We summarize the sources, consequences, and mitigation options for fish stranding. ► Generalized statements can be made about the factors associated with stranding. ► It is difficult to assess effectiveness of mitigation strategies.
An improved understanding of bycatch mortality can be achieved by complementing field studies with laboratory experiments that use physiological assessments. This study examined the effects of water ...temperature and the duration of net entanglement on physiological disturbance and recovery in coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) after release from a simulated beach seine capture. Heart rate was monitored using implanted electrocardiogram biologgers that allowed fish to swim freely before and after release. A subset of fish was recovered in respirometers to monitor metabolic recovery, and separate groups of fish were sacrificed at different times to assess blood and white muscle biochemistry. One hour after release, fish had elevated lactate in muscle and blood plasma, depleted tissue energy stores, and altered osmoregulatory status, particularly in warmer (15 vs. 10°C) and longer (15 vs. 2 min) capture treatments. A significant effect of entanglement duration on blood and muscle metabolites remained after 4 h. Oxygen consumption rate recovered to baseline within 7-10 h. However, recovery of heart rate to routine levels was longer and more variable, with most fish taking over 10 h, and 33% of fish failing to recover within 24 h. There were no significant treatment effects on either oxygen consumption or heart rate recovery. Our results indicate that fishers should minimize handling time for bycatch and maximize oxygen supply during crowding, especially when temperatures are elevated. Physiological data, such as those presented here, can be used to understand mechanisms that underlie bycatch impairment and mortality, and thus inform best practices that ensure the welfare and conservation of affected species.
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