Swimming depth of dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) associated and unassociated with fish aggregating devices
Type | Article | ||||||||
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Date | 2016 | ||||||||
Language | English | ||||||||
Author(s) | Whitney Nicholas M.1, Taquet Marc2, Brill Richard W.3, Girard Charlotte4, Schwieterman Gail D.1, Dagorn Laurent4, Holland Kim N.5 | ||||||||
Affiliation(s) | 1 : Mote Marine Lab, Behav Ecol & Physiol Program, 1600 Ken Thompson Pkwy, Sarasota, FL 34236 USA. 2 : Inst Rech Dev, EIO, UMR, BP 529, F-98713 Papeete, Tahiti, France. 3 : NOAA, Pacific Isl Fisheries Sci Ctr, Natl Marine Fisheries Serv, 2570 Dole St, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA. 4 : Inst Rech Dev, UMR Marine Biodivers Exploitat & Conservat MARBEC, Ave Jean Monnet CS 30171, F-34203 Sete, France. 5 : Univ Hawaii Manoa, Hawaii Inst Marine Biol, POB 1346, Kaneohe, HI 96744 USA. |
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Source | Fishery Bulletin (0090-0656) (Natl Marine Fisheries Service Scientific Publ Office), 2016 , Vol. 114 , N. 4 , P. 426-434 | ||||||||
DOI | 10.7755/FB.114.4.5 | ||||||||
WOS© Times Cited | 14 | ||||||||
Abstract | Dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus), large pelagic predators and important fishery targets, frequently associate with floating debris or manmade fish aggregating devices (FADs). We tagged 8 dolphinfish with pressure-sensitive ultrasonic transmitters and actively tracked individuals continuously for up to 40 h to elucidate the vertical movement patterns and differences between FADassociated (FAD-A) and FAD-unassociated (FAD-U) fish. Four additional fish were equipped with acoustic transmitters and passively monitored for several days with receivers attached to FADs. When not associated with FADs, dolphinfish used the upper 75-100 m of the water column during the day and made descents up to 160 m during the night. In contrast, FAD-A fish generally stayed within the upper 10 m of the water column and tended to make deeper excursions during the day rather than at night. Water temperature data from expendable bathythermo-graphs deployed during active tracking showed that fish only descended to depths where temperatures were <= 3 degrees C cooler than the uniform-temperature surface layer. The use of vertical behavior to determine whether a dolphinfish is associated or not with a floating object opens the possibility for new, large-scale research aimed at investigating the role of floating objects in the ecosystem inhabited by this species and at assessing the impacts of FADs on its ecology. |
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