A telemetric study of the home ranges and homing routes of copper and quillback rockfishes on shallow rocky reefs

Abstract

MATTHEWS, K. R. 1990. A telemetric study of the home ranges and homing routes of copper and quillback rockfishes on shallow rocky reefs. Can. J. Zool. 68: 2243-2250. Ultrasonic telemetry was used to investigate the home ranges and homing routes of 11 copper, Sebastes caurinus, and quillback, Sebastes maliger, rockfishes. Home ranges of four copper and quillback rockfishes were monitored to determine if movement occurred during the day, night, or strong current (7.4 krnlh). As expected from previous conventional tagging work, home ranges were small (most < 10 m2) on high relief reefs and considerably larger (within 4000 m2) on low relief reefs. No off-reef movement by copper and quillback rockfishes was detected on either reef type. To determine homing routes, the daily positions of seven copper and quillback rockfishes were monitored as they proceeded back to their home sites after experimental 500-m displacements from a high relief rocky reef to a low relief rocky reef. Six of the seven displaced copper and quillback rockfishes took from 8 to 25 days to return home; one quillback rockfish was followed for 16 days and lost, it was last located approximately halfway back to the original home site. Once displaced rockfish returned to their original capture site, no subsequent movement was detected, suggesting home site recognition. Homing seemed to consist of three phases: (i) initial movements along a bimodal northwest-southeast axis that are possibly associated with directional preferences in exploratory migrations, (ii) movement (westerly) towards the home reef, and (iii) the final location of the home site. Homing and exploratory migrations may be characteristic behaviors in the speciose rockfish group; the evolutionary advantage ensures rockfishes locate and utilize high quality habitats.MATTHEWS, K. R. 1990. A telemetric study of the home ranges and homing routes of copper and quillback rockfishes on shallow rocky reefs. Can. J. Zool. 68 : 2243-2250.Le domaine vital et les voies de retour au gite ont Ct C CtudiCs par tClCmCtrie aux ultrasons chez 11 SCbastes cuivrks, Sebastes caurinus, et SCbastes 2I dos Cpineux, Sebastes maliger. La mesure des domaines de quatre Sebastes cuivrks et SCbastes 2I dos Cpineux a permis de dkterminer si les poissons se deplacent durant le jour, durant la nuit et par fort courant (7,4 krnlh). Les rksultats ont confirm6 les donnees de travaux antkrieurs par marquage conventionnel, 2I savoir que les domaines sont petits (la plupart de moins de 10 m2) sur les rCcifs 2I relief important, et beaucoup plus grands (moins de 4000 m2) sur les rCcifs moins en relief. Aucun deplacement loin des rCcifs n'a Ct C enregistrk chez l'un ou I'autre poisson, ni sur I'un ni sur I'autre types de relief. Pour dkterminer les voies de retour au domaine, les positions quotidiennes de sept poissons ont Ct C determinees lors du retour 2I leur domaine aprks des deplacements experimentaux de 500 m d'un recif rocheux trks accident6 2I un recif rocheux peu accidentk. Six des sept poissons dCplacCs ont mis 8-2...

Home site fidelity in Black Rockfish, <em>Sebastes melanops</em>, reintroduced into a fjord environment

“…the home ranges of copper Rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) and Quillback Rockfish (S. maliger), for example, span less than 30 m 2 in structurally complex boulder piles (Matthews 1990a(Matthews , 1990b) but cover 1.5 to 2.5 km 2 in simpler substrates, such as low-relief sandstone composite (tolimieri et al 2009). these patterns are potentially explained by the higher density of refuges and perhaps greater prey abundance in the more complex habitats (Frid and Marliave 2010).…”

Short-range homing in a site-specific fish: search and directed movements

“…rockfishes (Love et al, 2002) and the greasy grouper (Kaunda-Arara and Rose, 2004)]. Homing can occur regularly in natural environments as fish move far away from their habitats when searching for new feeding sites or habitats, and then subsequently return to their original location (Reese, 1989;Matthews, 1990a;Matthews, 1990b).…”

“…It has been recognised since the 1970s that sedentary and territorial rockfishes can navigate home after being displaced (Carlson and Haight, 1972;Matthews, 1990a;Matthews, 1990b;Pearcy, 1992;Love et al, 2002;Mitamura et al, 2002;Reynolds et al, 2010). In the northeast Pacific Ocean, the yellowtail rockfish (Sebastes flavidus) returned home from as far as 22.5km even after 6months of captivity (Carlson and Haight, 1972).…”

“…In the northeast Pacific Ocean, the yellowtail rockfish (Sebastes flavidus) returned home from as far as 22.5km even after 6months of captivity (Carlson and Haight, 1972). Additionally, copper (S. caurinus) and quillback (S. maliger) rockfishes homed to capture sites after displacements of 500m (Matthews, 1990b). Rockfishes generally prefer relatively complex and high-relief reefs, and rockfish captured at such reefs tend to home back after displacement to a seemingly less suitable habitat (Matthews, 1990a preferences of many rockfish species are well reported (Love et al, 2002;Lowe et al, 2009;Reynolds et al, 2010), less is known about the behavioural and sensory mechanisms that govern short-range homing (Love et al, 2002;Mitamura et al, 2005).…”

“…At a local scale, odour plumes appear to be distributed along the direction of the water or wind current, even though this direction does not directly lead back to the odour source. Animals tend to show an up-current/upwind movement (Zimmer-Faust et al, 1995;Vickers, 2000) or a back-andforth movement around their displacement site along a current/wind (Matthews, 1990b). The initial back-and-forth movement would reduce the chances that animals would lose their first position and fail during subsequent navigation and orientation (Matthews, 1990b).…”