Navigation Links
New tracking tags are providing fish-eye views of ways to manage depressed fisheries
Date:3/13/2009

New tracking and observing technologies are giving marine conservationists a fish-eye view of conditions, from overfishing to climate change, that are contributing to declining fish populations, according to a new study.

Until recently, scientists provided fishery managers only such limited data as stock counts and catch estimates, said Charles Greene, Cornell professor of ocean sciences and lead author of the study published in the March issue (Vol. 22, No. 1) of the journal Oceanography.

But new advances in miniature sensors and fish-tracking tags, ocean observing systems and computer models are providing much more insight into environmental changes and how fish are responding behaviorally and biologically to such changes, thereby enabling better modeling to predict fish populations. As a result, researchers are making more informed recommendations for strategies to address falling fish populations.

Obtaining real-world data is essential, stressed Greene. "Many of the commercial fish populations in the world are pretty highly depressed. It's a bleak picture in terms of the status of many wild marine fish populations."

For example, the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, which can garner more than $15,000 per fish, is managed as two separate stocks, one in the Eastern Atlantic basin, with a breeding ground in the Mediterranean, and another in the western basin, with a breeding ground in the Gulf of Mexico. Both stocks are not sustainably harvested, and the western population has declined by roughly 90 percent over the last 25 years, despite strict quotas.

A project known as Tag A Giant (TAG) uses an implanted tag in the tuna to record external pressure, internal and external temperature and ambient light, though the tuna must be recaptured to recover these data. TAG also uses a pop-up tag that is attached to the tuna but self releases, floats to the surface and transmits data on each tuna's external conditions via
'/>"/>

Contact: Blaine Friedlander
bpf2@cornell.edu
607-254-8093
Cornell University
Source:Eurekalert

1

GOOD

Page: 1 2

Related biology news :

1. Tracking feline memories on the move
2. Louisiana Tech researchers investigate tracking, sensors to assist Air Force
3. NIH recognizes Clemson nanotechnology for molecule tracking
4. GestureTek/Imagination Launch AirPoint, Worlds First Hand-Tracking Unit, for Shell Group.
5. Tracking stroke
6. Tracking influenzas every movement
7. Tracking prions
8. Paleozoic sediment curve provides new tool for tracking sea-floor sediment movements
9. Tracking down the cause of mad cow disease
10. Scientists achieve first tracking of salmon from headwaters in Rockies through Pacific to Alaska
11. Oral rinses used for tracking HPV-positive head and neck cancers holds promise for cancer screening
Post Your Comments:
*Name:
*Comment:
*Email: