Telemetry monitoring of fine scale movement: behavior of black rockfish in a small home range

Abstract

Several fish species show a strong homing ability and distinct site fidelity to their original habitats and spawning sites. While some pelagic fishes exhibit long-distance migration in an ocean, some site-specific fishes show homing and site fidelity behaviors within a small home range (e.g. < 1 km2). Fine-scale monitoring (accuracy: meters) of movements contributes to the understanding of homing and site fidelity behaviors particularly for the site-specific fishes. We have studied the homing and site fidelity behaviors of the black rockfish which is a typical site-specific fish. In 2004, we tried to monitor fine-scale movements of the rockfish using a positioning telemetry system and introduce the results in this paper.