A decade of monitoring Atlantic cod Gadus morhua spawning aggregations in Massachusetts Bay using passive acoustics

Abstract

Atlantic cod Gadus morhua populations in the northeast USA have failed to recover since major declines in the 1970s and 1990s. To rebuild these stocks, managers need reliable information on spawning dynamics in order to design and implement control measures; discovering cost-effective and non-invasive monitoring techniques is also favorable. Atlantic cod form dense, site-fidelic spawning aggregations during which they vocalize, permitting acoustic detection of their presence at such times. The objective of this study was to detect spawning activity of Atlantic cod using multiple fixed-station passive acoustic recorders to sample across Massachusetts Bay during the winter spawning period. A generalized linear modeling approach was used to investigate spatio-temporal trends of cod vocalizing over 10 consecutive winter spawning seasons (2007-2016), the longest such timeline of any passive acoustic monitoring of a fish species. The vocal activity of Atlantic cod was associated with diel, lunar, and seasonal cycles, with a higher probability of occurrence at night, during the full moon, and near the end of November. Following 2009 and 2010, there was a general decline in acoustic activity. Furthermore, the northwest corner of Stellwagen Bank was identified as an important spawning location. This project demonstrated the utility of passive acoustic monitoring in determining the presence of an acoustically active fish species, and provides valuable data for informing the management of this commercially, culturally, and ecologically important species.

Acoustic homogeneity in the piranha Serrasalmus maculatus

“…This homogeneity is essential to formalize their use in PAM and to be able to distinguish the target species. Several studies in marine environments have shown long-term consistency (10-17 years) in the acoustic features of fish from the same geographic areas, including the brown meagre Sciaena umbra Linnaeus, 1758 (Parmentier et al, 2018) and Atlantic cod Gadus morhua Linnaeus, 1758 (Caiger et al, 2020), further supporting the usefulness of PAM for fishes.…”

Vocal behavior of the endangered splendid toadfish and potential masking by anthropogenic noise

“…The Cozumel Paraiso Reef study focused on the splendid toadfish, demonstrated the value of PAM survey data as a tool for understanding vulnerable species and habitats that may lead to conservation initiatives. We present the first description of acoustic recordings of S. splendidus vocalizations that can be effectively used by scientists and managers to determine the species' occurrence, habitat range, and behavior and ecology, including mating and spawning (sensu Bertucci, Lejeune, Payrot, & Parmentier, 2015; Caiger et al, 2020; Luczkovich, Pullinger, Johnson, & Sprague, 2008; Wall et al, 2014). Recent quantitative approaches allow for estimating population density and abundance based on calling patterns (Marques et al, 2013), and these approaches could also be applied to S. splendidus .…”

Sound discrimination of two sympatric, threatened fish species allows for their in situ mapping

“…Furthermore, the sound level of fish choruses provides insights into fish population abundances (Rowell et al, 2012;Rowell et al, 2017). PAM has already been proved as a valuable tool for locating FSAs of exploited species, such as cod, haddock and other gadidae (Rountree et al, 2006;Hawkins & Picciulin, 2019;Caiger et al, 2020). In the future, the use of fixed, autonomous recorders and of mobile acoustic sensors (e.g.…”