Active Tracking of Maja Squinado in the Mediterranean Sea with Wireless Acoustic Sensors: Method, Results and Prospectives

Abstract

The Sustainable TEchnologies for LittoraL Aquaculture and MArine REsearch (STELLA MARE) platform has as an objective to provide data for the management of the sea in relation with the fishing industry. In this paper, we introduce the first experiment on the active tracking of a crab species, Maja squinado, symbolic of the deregulation of fishing activity. This paper introduces the method used for monitoring Maja squinado and the first collected data on the behavior of this little-known species.

Let them go free: Spatial behaviour following the experimental release of hatchery-reared juveniles Sciaena umbra and Dentex dentex

“…This tool consists in tracking individuals that were tagged with an electronic transmitter allowing the estimation of their survival (Villegas-Ríos et al, 2020), the assessment of behaviours (e.g. Gualtieri et al, 2013) and dispersal (e.g. Eder et al, 2015).…”

Migration and distribution of adult hatchery reared Yangtze sturgeons ( Acipenser dabryanus ) after releasing in the upper Yangtze River and its implications for stock enhancement

“…Furthermore, the number of ultrasonic signals and individuals became less and less over time. The above results might be attributed to the great distance between the fixed stations and ultrasound tags (Gualtieri et al., 2013) and the river sediment concentration. In addition, it could not be ruled out that the ultrasonic tag fell off the fish body (Wang et al., 2012).…”

“…The underwater hydrophone fixed on the forward right side of the boat with a depth of 0.5 m into the water was used to record the signals. Tag detections including positons, date, time, fish ID were recorded by the receivers, and these coordinates were transformed to geodetic coordinates (WGS84) and imported into EXCEL 2007 (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) and finally interpreted as a theme in the ArcGIS environment (Gualtieri et al., 2013).…”

A Wireless Autonomous Real-Time Underwater Acoustic Positioning System

“…To illustrate the utility and efficiency of our system, we applied it to free-living tagged organisms. The Stella Mare research platform of the University of Corsica has focused on the monitoring of marine animals [ 5 ] for the ecological restoration of the Corsican coast. In this context, a common dentex ( Dentex dentex ) was caught in Nonza on the west side of Cap Corse (Corsica), equipped with a coded acoustic transmitter (ID-LP13-69 kHz Thelma Biotel (Trondheim, Norway), random delay: 30–90 s) and released at its capture location as part of the MoPamfish project.…”

“…While active tracking can yield fine-scale movement information, it is only limited to a few individuals over a short period of time [ 5 ]. Classical passive monitoring is used to remotely quantify longer-term presence–absence and movements of multiple individuals over larger temporal and spatial scales.…”