DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6hdr7sqx3
title: Comparative migration ecology of striped bass and Atlantic sturgeon in the US Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight flyway

description: Seasonal migrations are key to the production and persistence of marine
 fish populations but movements within shelf movement corridors or,
 “flyways”, are poorly known. Atlantic sturgeon and striped bass, two
 anadromous species of concern, are known for their extensive migrations
 along the US Middle-Atlantic Bight. Seasonal patterns of habitat selection
 are well described within spawning rivers, estuaries, and shelf foraging
 habitats, but information on the location and timing of key coastal
 migrations is limited. Using a gradient-based array of acoustic telemetry
 receivers, we compared the seasonal incidence and movement behavior of
 these species in the near-shelf region of Maryland, USA. Atlantic sturgeon
 incidence was highest in the spring and fall and tended to be biased
 toward shallow regions, while striped bass had increased presence during
 spring and winter months and selected deeper waters. Incidence was
 transient (mean = ~2 d) for both species with a pattern of increased
 residency (&gt; 2 d) during autumn and winter, particularly for
 striped bass, with many individuals exhibiting prolonged presence on the
 outer shelf during winter. Flyways also differed spatially between
 northern and southern migrations for both species and were related to
 temperature: striped bass were more likely to occur in cool conditions
 while Atlantic sturgeon preferred warmer temperatures. Observed timing and
 spatial distribution within the Middle-Atlantic flyway were dynamic
 between years and sensitive to climate variables. As shelf ecosystems come
 under increasing maritime development, gridded telemetry designs represent
 a feasible approach to provide impact responses within key marine flyways
 like those that occur within the US Middle-Atlantic Bight. 
description: All data were collected using VEMCO acoustic-release telemetry
 receivers deployed within the shelf region off the coast of Maryland and
 Delaware, USA from November 2016 to December 2018. All unique transmitter
 ID codes have been assigned reference numbers so that individual
 acoustically-tagged fish can be distinguished for analyses, but other
 identifiers have been removed to respect the data ownership rights of
 primary tagging organizations. These are the minimal required data to
 reproduce the results of "Comparative migration ecology of Striped
 Bass and Atlantic Sturgeon in the US Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight
 flyway". Additional details are available upon request to the
 author. Residency and transit data were formulated by
 running original VEMCO detection data through the “RunResidenceExtraction”
 function in the R (R Development Core Team, 2015) V-Track software (c/o
 Franklin Ecolab, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld, Australia).
 Residency events were only calculated using data collected in the focal
 acoustic receiver array of 24 receivers centered on the proposed Maryland
 Wind Energy Area (WEA). In the function, a residence event began when an
 acoustically-tagged fish was detected at least two times at a single
 receiver and was terminated when the tag was detected at a different
 receiver or if no new detections were recorded for 12 hours. Transit
 events were calculated using detections that occurred in both the Maryland
 acoustic receiver array and an adjacent array located of the coast of
 Delaware, in the proposed Delaware WEA. Only serial detections between the
 two arrays are reported; in the function, a transit event occurred any
 time an individual tag was detected sequentially between the Maryland and
 Delaware acoustic telemetry arrays within the span of a month.
description: <b>Hourly occurrence of Atlantic sturgeon and striped
 bass</b> Frequency of species detections within
 hours of the day were summarized from 20 acoustic telemetry receivers off
 Maryland, USA. Data include all dates and hours between November 16, 2016
 and December 4, 2018. The first column (Time) specifies the date and hour,
 with the column “freq” indicating the number of individuals detected in
 that time period. Additional columns describe the Day, Temperature (hourly
 average as recorded by the receiver), Hour, Month, Year, Season,
 Season/year (Seasonyr), and species (Atlantic sturgeon or striped bass).
 All_hourly.csv
 <b>Residence events of Atlantic sturgeon and striped bass
 in the Maryland Wind Energy Area</b> These
 residency data were collected off Ocean City, MD November 2016 to December
 2018. Columns indicate the STARTTIME and ENDTIME (yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS) of
 the event, the Transmitter (unique number associated with a tagged
 individual), STATIONNAME (receiver where the residence event occurred),
 DURATION of the event (in hours), ENDREASON for why the event was
 terminated, and NUMRECS for the number of detections that comprise the
 residence event. The remaining columns denote the month, year, season,
 seasonyr (season/year) and species that correspond with each event.
 All_residency.csv <b>Transit events of Atlantic sturgeon and striped bass in the Maryland Wind Energy Area</b> These transit data were collected off the coast of Maryland and Delaware, USA November 2016 to December 2018. Columns indicate the STARTTIME and ENDTIME (yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS) of the event, Transmitter (unique number associated with a tagged individual), STATIONNAME1 and STATIONNAME2 (receivers where the first and second detections occurred, respectively) DURATION of the event (in seconds), DISTANCE (between receivers, in meters), and ROM (rate of movement, in m/s). Other columns of note include the array in which each detection occurred (Array1, Array2), the direction of transit along the coast (Direction), and the rate of transit in km/h. Species and individual characteristics used for other analyses are also indicated (Sex, Weight, TL). All_transit.csv <b>Frequency of individual striped bass detections offshore of Maryland, USA</b> These detection data for acoustically-tagged striped bass were collected using a primary array of 20 acoustic-release telemetry receivers deployed off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, USA from November 2016 to December 2018. All potential days and sites for species detection are included. Relevant columns denote Site (acoustic receiver ID), Day (yyyy-mm-dd), transmitter (unique tag identification number), and freq (number of detections). NA values occur in the transmitter column when no individuals were detected. Temperature, Noise, Lat, Long, Array, and Depth_m are also included for reference information. Temperature and noise values are based on daily averages recorded <em>in-situ</em> by receivers at each site. Individual_detections_bass.csv <b>Frequency of individual Atlantic sturgeon detections offshore of Maryland, USA</b> These detection data for acoustically-tagged Atlantic sturgeon were collected using a primary array of 20 acoustic-release telemetry receivers deployed off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, USA from November 2016 to December 2018. All potential days and sites for species detection are included. Relevant columns denote Site (acoustic receiver ID), Day (yyyy-mm-dd), transmitter (unique tag identification number), and freq (number of detections). NA values occur in the transmitter column when no individuals were detected. Temperature, Noise, Lat, Long, Array, and Depth_m are also included for reference information. Temperature and noise values are based on daily averages recorded <em>in-situ</em> by receivers at each site. Individual_detections_sturg.csv <b>Daily, receiver-based presence/absence of striped bass and sturgeon for quotient analysis</b> These data were collected using a primary array of 20 acoustic telemetry receivers offshore of Maryland, USA from November 2016 to December 2018. The file contains a column for the Day (yyyy-mm-dd), Site (receiver ID), Temperature, freq (presence/absence of acoustically-tagged individuals), and Season. Temperature values are based on daily averages recorded at each site. There are separate files for each species. Quotient_analysis_bass.csv, Quotient_analysis_sturg.csv