As well as deploying tags, the team took blood samples and fin clips to help understand the health of the animals, how they fit into the systems food web and how the populations are connected to other areas.
PhD student, Edward Lavender, recently presented some of his surprising early findings about the detection patterns of Critically Endangered flapper skate within an array of static acoustic receivers in a Scottish Marine Protected Area at the 5th International Conference on Fish Telemetry, Arendal, Norway (June 2019). Tagged skate were almost entirely detected around a small set of receivers in the south of the Marine Protected Area. But is this really where they ‘like’ to be? And does this mean their movements are restricted? Unfortunately, detections at acoustic receivers represent an unknown combination of animal movement, the spatiotemporal distribution of receivers (i.e. sampling effort) and detection probability. For flapper skate within a highly non-uniformly distributed receiver array, this means that detection patterns, alone, tell us very little about space use. Fortunately, however, high resolution depth data were collected alongside acoustic data for some individuals. In addition, skate are bottom dwelling and, off the West coast of Scotland, live in a bathymetrically heterogeneous environment. This raises the enticing possibility of estimating movement pathways between acoustic detections using depth data as a way of circumventing these challenges to address the questions posed above.
At the conference, Edward presented the first version of such an algorithm, creating the opportunity to study the movement patterns and space use of demersal species within similar systems in a way which isn’t so constrained by the design of the receiver array and at higher spatial (5 m) and temporal (2 minute) resolutions than previously possible. For the flapper skate specifically, Ed’s research opens new doors to investigate their movements in relation to the Marine Protected Area.
The International Conference on Fish Telemetry is a forum to discuss research on the application of tagging technologies to study fish biology. This year, researchers from over 20 countries came to Arendal – a small municipality in the far south of Norway – to give posters, presentations, meet colleagues and extend the boundaries of knowledge. This context, set within a spectacular Nordic fjordic system, fostered an atmosphere buzzing with ideas, excitement and discussions spanning the conservation physiology of Atlantic salmon and spatial management of threatened elasmobranch populations to cutting-edge model development, open data and more.
Edward Lavender is grateful to Shark Guardian for supporting this research and his attendance at the conference. If you would like a copy of the poster or more information please contact Edward.
Dr Mendo’s latest paper, “Effect of temporal and spatial resolution on identification of fishing activities in small-scale fisheries using pots and traps“, has been published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science. Small-scale fisheries (SSFs) vessels have generally been exempted from positional reporting requirements, but recent developments of compact low-cost systems offer the potential to monitor them effectively. The paper’s analysis highlights the optimal rates of data collection to characterise fishing activities at the appropriate spatial resolution, minimising demands for data transmission, storage and analysis. This has significant implications globally for sustainable management of these fisheries, many of which are currently unregulated.
CRMG’s Dr Mendo and Dr James along with fellow colleagues used onboard observers to log fishing activities whilst collecting Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positional data every second on 66 Scottish vessels 12 m and under in length, using static gear (pots or creels), and primarily targeting lobsters, crabs, and prawns. The data were then analysed to understand what the minimum GNSS logging frequency would be needed to accurately infer fishing activities from just the positional track alone (accounting for other key vessel characteristics such as vessel engine size) as part of the SIFIDS Project. For vessels using pots and traps in Scotland, a polling interval of 60 seconds was found to be optimal for estimating the number of hauls, total area fished per trip, mean area fished and spatial extent of fishing activities in small and medium vessels.
James recently visited the University of Nord in northern Norway to give a guest lecture about his tagging work and the use of Marine Protected Areas in elasmobranch conservation. Nord is one of the universities, along with Aberdeen, working on the genetics of the flapper skate (Drs. Cath Jones and Les Noble). The genetic and tagging work support each other, increasing our insight into the movements and interactions of skate within the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura MPA and so face to face time that such a visiting opportunity present are valuable.
A class of attentive Marine Biology undergraduates all up and at lectures for 9 am!
Nord University is a recently established university (2016) but has access to amazing facilities including a marine station on the coast from which the students can enjoy practical fieldwork onboard one of their research vessels. It is set amongst amazing mountain scenery, with stunning coastlines where sea eagles are abundant. One of the more impressive marine features in the area is the Saltstraumen, a small strait with one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. Not too dissimilar to our Loch Etive with the Falls of Lora, this is an impressive marine feature and not one to be underestimated!
A very tame looking Saltstraumen – a very different place during a spring tide!
Delivering a seminar and a student lecture, James visited Les, his former PhD supervisor, for 4 days and was treated to some amazing aurora displays (leaving a very happy James, getting to tick off a long-held bucket list ambition) and fantastic Norwegian hospitality.
Amazing Aurora over the island of Landegode
A big thank you to the University of Nord for hosting CRMG!
SIFIDS has been mentioned in Marine Scotland’s Future of fisheries management in Scotland: national discussion paper (March 2019). The paper seeks to start an in-depth discussion to help inform and develop the Scottish Government’s Future Fisheries Management Strategy. It contains a range of ideas and proposals to help deliver a future management structure which will firmly establish Scotland’s place as a world leader in responsible and sustainable fisheries management. The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a sustainable, evidence-based approach to the management of Scottish fisheries based on high-quality scientific data. SIFIDS is highlighted as a project helping combat the challenge of data deficiency encountered when conducting inshore stock assessments. Investigations into innovative, low-cost and low-maintenance technology will help SIFIDS formulate attainable recommendations to Scottish Government on how best to improve inshore fisheries science.
SIFIDS Project Manager, Hannah, presented a SIFIDS-focused poster at the first Scotland’s International Marine Conference, Glasgow (20-21 Feb 2019). The conference focused on current national and international actions to protect the marine environment with speeches from Nicola Sturgeon and Lewis Pugh, and provided a great opportunity to promote key aspects of SIFIDS to the wider marine community.
If you would like a PDF copy of the poster shown at the conference please email helj2@st-andrews.ac.uk
