To determine individual patterns of habitat use, site fidelity, and movement, adult striped bass Morone saxatilis (n = 81; mean fork length = 70.8 cm [range, 48.3‐95.3 cm]) were implanted with individually coded acoustic transmitters and tracked with a mobile hydrophone from July 2003 through July 2005 in Mullica River‐Great Bay estuary in southern New Jersey. Striped bass in this small coastal bay‐estuarine system preferred deeper water near shorelines and were found at the same location 56.6% of the time. In fact, the persistence of individual home ranges at the scale of meters was observed within and among years. When fish were moving, their pattern was characterized by sporadic swimming followed by long periods of little movement. Seasonally, movement in the estuary was highest in April, followed by two secondary peaks in October and December. Daily movement was highest around sunset. Mobile telemetry demonstrated important dynamics in habitat use, site fidelity, and estuarine movements that were not detectable by a parallel study using a fixed array of omnidirectional hydrophones. In addition, the high degree of site fidelity across seasons and years implies that habitat management at the appropriate spatial scale can be an important component of fisheries management for this species.

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Understanding factors controlling the distribution and reproduction of fishes is crucial for developing ecosystem models of fish populations. Yet, these observations are difficult to make on the same time and space scales as physical forcing events. A hydrophone was used to record fish sound production associated with reproduction at the LEO-15 ocean observatory to determine the relationship between variation in fish calling behavior and oceanographic variation. Sound production was dominated by Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus, weakfish Cynoscion regalis, and striped cusk-eel Ophidion marginatum. Striped cusk-eels called with a crepuscular pattern, with a strong peak at dusk, less sound production during the night, and a lesser peak in sound production at dawn. Sciaenids called mostly at dusk and night. Nine advection events bringing colder waters to the LEO-15 site were correlated with greatly reduced levels of sound production in Atlantic croaker and weakfish on daily time scales. Our results show how ocean observatories with passive acoustics can study tightly coupled physical oceanographic influences on fish behavior on daily time scales.KEY WORDS: Sciaenid · Cusk-eel · Passive acoustics · Ocean observatory Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 375: [65][66][67][68][69][70][71] 2009 Chesapeake Bay tributaries), and local wind forcing, including upwelling and hurricanes (Bumpus 1973, Beardsley et al. 1976, Churchill & Cornillon 1991, Flagg et al. 1994. Several species of soniferous fishes spawn in these coastal waters, including weakfish Cynoscion regalis, spot Leiostomus xanthurus, Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus, black drum Pogonias cromis, striped cusk-eel Ophidion marginatum, and striped and northern searobins Prionouts evolans and P. carolinas (Able & Hagan 1995, Martino & Able 2003. Spot and Atlantic croaker are at the northern end of their range off New Jersey, and local spawning and recruitment appear to fluctuate dramatically in response to temperature (Grothues & Able 2003, Hare & Able 2007. LEO-15 offers the opportunity to collect simultaneous oceanographic data and passive acoustics data to explore environmental correlates of variability in fish sound production.We deployed a hydrophone at the LEO-15 to explore fish sound patterns on event to long-term time scales. The goals were to determine the timing of soniferous fish sound production at the coastal ocean study site and perform time-series analysis of sound production data and oceanographic data to determine how physical parameters may influence daily and seasonal patterns of sound production. We show that short-term upwelling events, on the order of days, are tightly correlated with variability in fish sound production. MATERIALS AND METHODSStudy site and data acquisition. LEO-15 is a submarine electro-optical telecommunications platform with a node (Node B) located at the 20 m isobath of Beach Haven Ridge, a shoreface sand ridge 9.6 km off the coast of s...

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