Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
2011
Journal
MARINE AND COASTAL FISHERIES
Volume
3
Issue
1
First Page
353
Last Page
365
Abstract
Pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) were deployed on 19 sailfish Istiophorus platypterus captured in the southern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits between 2005 and 2007 on commercial pelagic longline gear (n = 18) and recreational rod-and-reel gear (n = 1). The data from three tags indicated mortality events and were excluded from subsequent analyses. All PSATs were programmed to collect pressure (depth), temperature, and light-level data for 10 d at approximately 90-s intervals. These transmitted point data subsequently allowed the reconstruction of vertical movement patterns. The remaining 16 PSAT data sets indicate that sailfish are primarily associated with the upper surface waters within the top 20m(75.7% of total time during the day versus 46.7% at night) but undertake numerous short-duration vertical movements below the local mixed layer to depths of 50-150 m, presumably to feed. Analyses of 2,279 individual vertical movements among all 16 tagged sailfish indicated two distinct types (short-duration "V" and longer-duration "U" movements) similar to those reported for white marlin Kajikia albida. Sailfish also exhibited movement type differences between diel periods (having higher proportions of V movements in daytime), suggesting directed foraging at depth. Although short-duration movement to depths by these tagged fish contribute a small percentage of the total time at depth, these depths overlap with themonitored shallow-set pelagic longline gear depths actively targeting swordfish by the vessel in the local fishery. These results suggest that time-at-depth histograms alone may be insufficient to capture feeding motivations at depth and, therefore, true interaction potentials between individual sailfish and pelagic longline gear.
DOI
10.1080/19425120.2011.623990
Keywords
PELAGIC LONGLINE GEAR; MARLIN MAKAIRA-NIGRICANS; WESTERN NORTH-ATLANTIC; BLUE MARLIN; ISTIOPHORUS-PLATYPTERUS; POSTRELEASE SURVIVAL; TETRAPTURUS-AUDAX; SATELLITE TAGS; DEPTH; TELEMETRY
Sponsor
The authors greatly appreciate the generous programming and analytical assistance provided by A. Horodysky (Hampton University), as well as help with MATLAB programming from A. Bever (Virginia Institute of Marine Science). We also thank the captains and crews of the FV Kristin Lee, FV Carol Ann, and the sportfishing vessel Sea-D for their assistance with our tagging efforts. This study was funded by Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission grant BILLFISH-2005-009.
Recommended Citation
David W. Kerstetter , Shannon M. Bayse , Jenny L. Fenton & John E. Graves (2011) Sailfish Habitat Utilization and Vertical Movements in the Southern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits, Marine and Coastal Fisheries, 3:1, 353-365, DOI: 10.1080/19425120.2011.623990
