Project Information

Title: Testing Satellite Tags as a Tool for Identifying Critical Habitat 00478

Project Year and Number: 2000: 00478

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2001: 01478

Principal Investigator (PI): Andrew Seitz (US Geological Survey)

Managing Agency: USGS

Assisting Personnel: Jennifer Nielsen, Derek Wilson

Research Location: Prince William Sound, Gulf of Alaska

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract: The definition of critical habitat in the marine environment is essential to the development of reserves or protected areas in relationship to a sustainable commercial or sport fishery. This project will assess and test the application of satellite archive, pop-up tags on marine fishes of the Gulf of Alaska. Software and tag technology will be adapted and developed for geolocation tracking using light, depth, and bathometry data from satellite pop-up tags. Tag application and light-geolocation relationships will be tested on live halibut brought into husbandry at the Alaska SeaLife Center and kept under an accelerated solar-shift regime mimicking standard conditions in the gulf. These data will be compared to light and depth readings taken aboard boats on the gulf, where extreme crepuscular or solar light conditions predominate through much of the year. These developments will assist in multiple applications of the new tag technology in fisheries-independent habitat assessments for the nearshore and pelagic marine environments in the Gulf of Alaska.


Proposal: Not Available

Reports:
Final Report: See Project 01478

Publications from this Project: None Available