Tracking fish with electronic tags

The distributions of many species of fish show pronounced seasonal changes as a result of migration. We are using long-term electronic tagging to study the migratory behaviour of fish in the North Sea. Using simple measurements of depth and temperature, we have found that we can reconstruct the trac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1997-06, Vol.387 (6634), p.665-666
Main Authors: Metcalfe, J. D, Arnold, G. P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal migration
Fish
Fish migration
Fisheries
Fishing
Marine
Pleuronectes platessa
Spawning
Tidal waves
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Summary:The distributions of many species of fish show pronounced seasonal changes as a result of migration. We are using long-term electronic tagging to study the migratory behaviour of fish in the North Sea. Using simple measurements of depth and temperature, we have found that we can reconstruct the tracks of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) migrating between the southern North Sea and their spawning areas in the eastern English Channel or northeast coast of England. In this way we show that fish can visit more than one spawning area within a single spawning season and that rates of movement are often ten times faster than those deduced from conventional mark-recapture experiments.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/42622