Waves are driven by the wind, and wind is created by sun-heated air rising upwards. So wave power is indirect energy from the sun.
Generating electricity from waves has been researched since the 1970’s, but is only now becoming a reality. Several different designs have been developed for practical, tough, wave power systems. But they are all variations on a theme; waves travelling up and down move something mechanical that spins a turbine.
Luckily for us, the seas around the UK are one of the best places in the world for wave power. Winds blowing from the south west across the Atlantic produce strong waves all year round. However, the flip side of this is the sheer power of winter storms at sea. One of the most difficult aspects of wave power technology is building machinery that is tough enough to not be destroyed these storms.
Here are some examples of wave power in action
Many different types of wave power devices are now being tested in a wave
farm off the coast of Cornwall, to see which works best.
Salter's Duck, wave research in the 1970's and how it upset the energy industry


Longitudinally compatible DWDM applications for repeaterless optical fibre submarine cable systems
|Publication Date:||1 November 2009|
This Recommendation provides physical layer specifications for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) applications in point-to-point repeaterless optical fibre submarine cable systems. The goal is to enable longitudinally compatible applications.
The primary purpose is to enable multiple vendors to provide transmission equipment for submarine fibre links that are compliant with this Recommendation.
This Recommendation includes a generic reference model for the physical layer applications. The specifications take into account parameters such as maximum attenuation, fibre types, wavelength ranges, maximum chromatic dispersion, minimum local chromatic dispersion coefficient, maximum differential group delay, and minimum effective area.
This Recommendation focuses on repeaterless optical fibre submarine cable systems without remotely pumped optical amplifiers.
This Recommendation presumes that the optical tributary signals transported within optical channels are digital.


1 edition of Assessment of Hong Kong"s inshore fishery resources found in the catalog.
Assessment of Hong Kong"s inshore fishery resources
|Statement||by Tony J. Pitcher ... [et al.].|
|Series||Fisheries Centre research reports -- v. 6, no. 1.|
|Contributions||Pitcher, T. J., University of British Columbia. Fisheries Centre.|
|LC Classifications||SH298.3 .A77 1998|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||81,  p. :|
|Number of Pages||81|
I love fishing to the most extreme and I'm all about the preservation of the salt water wildlife! Sea Breeze Charters follows the guidelines of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the South Eastern Fishery Council and I'm a member of the IGFA (International Game Fish Association). Best Books of the Year ; to various units of China Fishery Group, a Hong Kong-based, Two years later the family listed Pacific Andes Resources Development, in which PAIH held a Minimum to Customize Books: 50 copies Overview The third edition is thoroughly revised to take into account the new Companies Ordinance (Chapter , effective ) and Hong Kong Standards on Quality Control, Auditing, Assurance and Related Services (updated June ), and numerous developments of a full range of auditing topics since the.
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Assessment of Hong Kong Inshore Fishery Resources, Page 4 INTRODUCTION This report describes the catch, biomass and exploitation status of fished stocks in the km2 of Hong Kong’s coastal waters, the trophic structure of Hong Kong's inshore marine ecosystem, and the predicted impact of specified changes to fisheries management on the ecosystem.
Assessment of Hong Kong's inshore fishery resources. Assessment of Hong Kong's inshore fishery resources: Alternate Title: Fisheries Centre research reports, Vol.
6, no. 1: Creator: Pitcher, Tony J. Watson, Reg Courtney, Anthony Pauly, Daniel: Publisher: Fisheries Centre. University of British Columbia: Date Issued: Description. Abstract EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This work aims to determine the exploitation status of Hong Kong's inshore fishery resources, and the likely impact of management measures.
View Homework Help - FISHERY_RESOURCES (1).pdf from BUSI at University of Maryland. ASSESSMENT OF HONG KONGS IN S HO RE FISHERY RESOURCES by Tony J.
Pitcher Reg Watson Anthony Courtney & Daniel. Fisheries Centre Research Reports No. 6 (Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
This work aims to determine the exploitation status of Hong Kong’s inshore fishery resources, and the likely impact of management measures on the coastal ecosystem. This report describes results of the assessment work performed.
The inshore waters of Tokyo, New York and Hong Kong were once substantial fisheries, but only vestiges remain after they were degraded by expansion of the built environment, infrastructure, land. To bring the fishing industry back to a sustainable path, the Government has amended the Fisheries Protection Ordinance (Cap.
) to implement a series of fisheries management measures to control the fishing effort in Hong Kong waters and protect important Assessment of Hong Kongs inshore fishery resources book spawning and nursery grounds. 1. Introduction. The inshore waters of Tokyo, New York and Hong Kong were once substantial fisheries, but only vestiges remain after they were degraded by expansion of the built environment, infrastructure, land reclamation, pollution, and overfishing.Fisheries research has overlooked these metropolitan inshores in favour of addressing the urgent sustainability issues.
These include the trawl ban, the registration of local fishing vessels, and eventual designation of fisheries protection areas in Hong Kong waters to protect important fish nursery and spawning grounds etc. Report of the Committee on Sustainable Fisheries.
Report on Survey of Fisheries Resources in Hong Kong (). Assessment of Hong Kong’s inshore fishery resources.
Fisheries Centre Research Reports 6(1): 81p. Watson R. and Pauly, D.(). Systematic distortions in world fisheries catch trends. Nature Wilson, K. The Hong Kong marine fish culture industry –. Inthe production of the capture fisheries and mariculture sectors accounted for about 28% of all seafood consumed in Hong Kong, whereas pond fish farms produced about 2% of the total consumption of freshwater fish.
Capture Fisheries. Inthe number of fishing vessels was about 5, and that of local fishermen was ab smaller than 12 m, and fish in inshore waters of Hong Kong. I also estimated the amount of recreational catches and discards from fisheries.
METHODS. Background of Hong Kong fisheries. Before and immediately after World War II, fishing boats were largely un. The recent development of Hong Kong's marine fisheries [Che-leung Ho] on *FREE* shipping on qualifying : Che-leung Ho.
The feeding of Upeneus moluccensis (Bleeker) on fishing grounds of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Fisheries Bulletin, No.3, pp, Lee CKC The reproduction, growth and survival of Upeneus moluccensis (Bleeker) in relation to the commercial fishery in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Fisheries Bulletin, No.4, Inshore Finfish Fisheries MPI Technical Paper No.
/23 Prepared by Inshore Fisheries, Resource Management and Programmes, Ministry for Primary Industries ISBN No: (online) ISSN No: (online) July Wherever you go in Hong Kong, it seems that if you can get to the water, you will see someone fishing.
You can find them on the busy waterfront promenades of the New Towns. You can find them on the empty shores of the Outlying Islands.
You can even find a few hardy types in tiny dinghies, dodging massive ships in the middle of Victoria Harbour. One thing in common with all these. Leung, A.W.Y. Temporal trends in fish abundance and species composition on an open access artificial reef in Hong Kong PhD dissertation University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, pp Google Scholar Leung, A.W.Y., Lee, C.K.C.
On the application of catch and effort information from the Hong Kong trawl fishery and associated problems. Hong Kong Live Seafood; Marine Fishes.
Help Conserve Fisheries Resources and Sustain the Reef Fish Trade; Fishing Fleets; Hong Kong Live Seafood; Hong Kong Live Seafood - Marine Fishes. Cultured substitute: with Ciguatera records: Conservation: Russell's Snapper: Malabar red snapper: Mangrove snapper.
This section makes reference to the following Hong Kong Government ordinances regulations, guidelines and standards and international conventions when identifying fisheries activities, and assessing impacts of the proposed jetty development on the fisheries resources and activities in the assessment area.
Foreword. The purpose of this Integrated Fisheries Management Plan (IFMP) is to identify the main objectives and requirements for the inshore lobster fishery in Maritimes Region, namely Lobster Fishing Areasas well as the tactics that will be used to achieve these objectives.
HONG KONG - The continuing growth of the region's fish and aquaculture market was the central theme at the fifth edition of Seafood Expo Asia held from September at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Lai Loi Chau, a freshwater fish farmer who chairs the Hong Kong New Territories Fish Culture Association and participated in the pilot scheme, said about 1, fish ponds exist in Hong Kong.
“Birds around the fishpond wetlands feed on 15 to 20 percent of the fry in our ponds,” Lai says. “It costs us about HK$, a year for a one. Inshore fishery. The ownership of the fishery resources is not clearly defined (Fong ) but the rights to use the resource by qoliqoli owners (custodians) is well established in Section 17 of the Fisheries Act.
Not only the ownership but the exploitation of the resources by others for commercial purpose is also clearly spelt out. Study Area for this fisheries impact assessment (Figure ). The importance of fishing resources and fisheries operations identified within the Study Area was assessed using the EIAO-TM.
The potential impacts due to the construction and operation of the drainage tunnel have been assessed (following the EIAO-TM Annex 17 guidelines) and the impacts. According to Can Git-faa, secretary of Tai O Rural Committee, two thirds of villagers are fishermen in the s while the resident population drops to less than 2, now and few would fish any more.
The reduction of fisheries resources in Hong Kong waters and the rise of fuel costs result in shrinking profits. Fisheries: The investigation and assessment of aquatic resources is done annually, but with low efficiency due to improper methods and limited budgets.
At present, the surveyed data and statistics are not strong enough to be a theoretical foundation for the government to manage and protect the aquatic resources.
The uneaten feed and waste from inshore fish farms can also easily trigger algal blooms, or red tides, which cause widespread havoc on ecosystems. Hong Kong fish. - Buy Changes in Hong Kong's Capture Fisheries During the 20th Century and Reconstruction of the Marine Ecosystem of Local Inshore Waters in the s book online at best prices in India on Read Changes in Hong Kong's Capture Fisheries During the 20th Century and Reconstruction of the Marine Ecosystem of Local Inshore Waters in the s book reviews & Author: Wai-Lung Cheung.
Hong Kong Department of Agriculture, Forestry, Conservation and Environment Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora DAFF Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries DEAT Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism MARINEs Management Action for Resources of Inshore and Nearshore Environments.
1. Introduction. China accounts for more than 60% of the world aquaculture production and has remained the major producer for fisheries production, followed by Indonesia, the United States and Russia .Inthe total value of production in fisheries in China was CNY billion (US$ billion) , contributing to approximately % of the nation's GDP.
1 The fishery is an industry. If the summer’s just too darn hot for you to tackle, then wait until the off-season begins in November and head out to one of Hong Kong’s 17 reservoirs which are open to the public for fishing.
Staff and resources from six government departments were deployed to the EPD. The EPD replaced the Environmental Protection Agency (which had been created in to replace the Environmental Protection Unit, created in ) as the main government body charged with tackling pollution.
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Mobile/WhatsApp: + Mobile/WhatsApp: + Skype: Kidusi. Email: ta[email protected]. Resources Agriculture. Inthere were 2, farms in the territory, employing directly about 5, farmers and workers.
By the end ofthe land used for vegetable, flower, field crop, and orchard are ha, ha, 30 ha, and ha respectively. A fact sheet published in estimates that only 7 square kilometres of land in Hong Kong are actively farmed.
Tuna and pelagic fishers catch southern blue fin tuna, skipjack tuna, albacore, kahawai and mackerels. Members of Fisheries Inshore New Zealand own more than 51% of the quota in fish-stocks and between 40% and 51% in a further 13 fish-stocks.
Introduction. Global finfish catches from capture fisheries peaked in the s and have declined or remained stable since the early s, yet global invertebrate catches have continued to gh some invertebrate fisheries have existed for centuries –, many others have commenced or rapidly expanded over the past 2–3 decades.Today, shrimp has the largest share of the total.
Assessment is an ongoing process built into the cycles of teaching and learning. Though there are times (such as final exams in upper grades) when assessment is a culmination of learning, in general assessment is incorporated into teaching and learning and the results of assessments are used by teachers and students to guide future learning.
You can combine the range of with the depth of NADA Guides to help you pinpoint the market value of a boat. NADA Guides is a comprehensive vehicle-listing website that publishes blue-book type specifications, research material, and pricing information on boats and personal watercraft as well as other types of vehicles.
by Mr. Napoleon Salvador J. Lamarca. Regional Fisheries Policy Network (RFPN) Member for the Philippines. INTRODUCTION. The Philippines is an archipelago that consists of 7, islands with a total land area ofkm total area of marine waters including EEZ is 2, km 2 and the total length of its coastlines is 36, km.
The country’s shelf and coral reef areas cover.Condition Assessment Scheme (CAS) KE IMOEdition KE IGC Code, Edition KAE Waste Assesssment Guidelines, EAE Anti-Fouling Systems (AFS) Convention, Ed KAE IGC Code, Edition KBE London Convention & London Protocol, KE Hong Kong Convention, Edition KE IGF Code, Edition KE.We have more than 10 years experience in the fishing business and provide a first-class experience in adventure services in the area of the Pacific.
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Professor Callum Roberts
Stella Turk Building
University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, TR10 9FE
I am Professor of Marine Conservation in the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter's Cornwall campus. My research focuses on threats to marine ecosystems and species and on finding the means to protect them. My main interests include documenting the impacts of fishing on marine life, both historic and modern, and exploring the theory and practical effectiveness of marine protected areas for conservation and fisheries management.
For the last few decades I have used science to make the case for stronger protection for marine life at both national and international levels. My research group designed half a million square kilometres of marine protection in the North Atlantic that was established by OSPAR in 2010. We also provided the scientific underpinning for a new ocean protection target – 30% marine protected areas by 2030 – which is gaining widespread support as a follow on to the UN 10% by 2020 target.
I am also an author. The Unnatural History of the Sea (Island Press) charts the effects of 1000 years of exploitation on ocean life. A second book, Ocean of life: how our seas are changing (Penguin Books), shows that the oceans are changing faster and in more ways than at any time in human history, and sets out a series of reforms that could lead to a more sustainable future. I have also written a book with the award winning photographer Alex Mustard, Secrets of the Seas (Bloomsbury), which through his glorious images showcases some of the most beautiful wildlife and places in the sea. My latest book, Reef Life (Profile Books), is on the past and precarious future of the world’s richest marine ecosystem, coral reefs.
I was chief scientific advisor for the BBC television’s flagship series Blue Planet II. I work extensively with ocean conservation charities and am Chief Scientific Advisor to BLUE Marine Foundation as well as a Trustee. I am also a WWF UK Ambassador, am on the board of the Nekton Deep Ocean Research Institute, scientific advisor to the Maldives Coral Institute, and advisor to the Pew Bertarelli Global Ocean Legacy Program.
BSc (Hons) Biology, University of York 1983
PhD Coral reef ecology, University of York 1987
Research group links
Publications by category
Publications by year
Callum_Roberts Details from cache as at 2023-12-06 15:12:00
- BIO3433 - Ocean Management and Conservation
- BIOM4040 - Fisheries Management
- BIOM4042 - Coral Reef Field Course
- BIOM4050 - Marine Protected Areas


Leathery Sea Squirt Steyla clava
Sea squirts are animals shaped like a stout bag with two openings (siphons). This species is differentiated from other sea squirts in the UK by being solitary, with each individual having its own basal stalk. The species was probably introduced in 1952 on the hulls of warships returning after the Korean war. It can be found on the south and west coasts of England as far north as Cumbria and in abundance in certain parts of the Solent in southern England and parts of Loch Ryan and other scattered Scottish localities.
Large populations dominate and displace other species through competition for food and space. It is also a fouling pest on ship hulls and aquaculture infrastructure.
If you are a regular scuba diver, boater or beach comber and are interested in recording species this new app for smartphones has launched http://www.brc.ac.uk/sealife_tracker/ . The Sealife Tracker project aims to collect much needed data on both invasive and climate change indicator marine species around the UK coastline.


Brown tide refers to several phytoplankton species that color the water brown at high concentrations and is primarily found in the eastern embayments
of Long Island, including the Great South Bay, Moriches Bay, Shinnecock Bay, and the Peconic Bays system.
Around Kodiak Island, juvenile Tanner crabs grow more rapidly in protected embayments
with fine sediments, compared with other more exposed nearshore locations (Ryer et al.
Crabs in protected embayments
were larger in August than crabs at open coastal sites.
Since the initial discovery of Sargassum horneri and Undaria pinnatifida in the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach complex, their range and abundance has dramatically increased throughout the Southern California Bight to include many Channel Islands and coastal embayments
are present in shallow marginal areas of embayments
The slight embayments
mapped at the outer ends of the drains that cross the marsh also generally indicate an erosional state.
The no discharge zone encompasses approximately 3,675 square miles and 326 shoreline miles, including the navigable portions of the Lower Genesee, Oswego, Black Rivers and numerous other tributaries and harbors, embayments
of the Lake including Irondequoit Bay, Sodus Bay, North/South Ponds, Henderson Bay, Black River Bay and Chautmont Bay, and an abundance of formally designated habitats and waterways of local, state, and national significance.
Mazes of mangrove-edged connected creeks and embayments
create extensive nurseries for bonefish and other species.
For well-equilibrated open waters in the Eastern Australian Current the northeast coast value is likely to approximate local open ocean values, but studies elsewhere suggest that the waters within embayments
like Moreton Bay itself could reflect local input and hydrological conditions (e.
In Alaska, brant are increasing along the Alaska Peninsula at Izembek Lagoon and adjacent embayments
, where virtually the entire eastern Pacific Flyway population stages in fall prior to transoceanic migration to wintering areas (Reed et al.
56 papers from the Tenth International Conference on Estuarine and Coastal Modeling are presented in this volume, providing engineers in the field with updates on state-of-the-art application and models for bays, sounds, estuaries, embayments
, bights, lagoons and coastal seas.
Formed largely of freshwater glacial ice, the Larsen Ice Shelf is a series of three shelves occupying distinct embayments
along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and are named A, 13 and C according to their location.


Cape Hatteras National Seashore warns its visitors that ocean conditions this week are forecast to be dangerous along all beaches due to distant Hurricane Lee. Visitors are urged to avoid swimming in the ocean until conditions improve.
Large breaking waves, life-threatening rip currents, beach erosion, ocean overwash, and coastal flooding are all possible, according to the National Weather Service’s Newport/Morehead City Weather Reporting Office. These dangerous conditions are expected to persist into this weekend.Add to favorites
Credit: Original content published here.


Livestock manure is a main source of ammonia nitrogen emissions in the Baltic Sea region. This is a problem in most countries in the region, including Russia and Belarus, as the emissions account for a major portion of nitrogen entering the Baltic Sea. Thanks to new slurry acidification technologies, developed in Denmark, it is possible for farms to reduce the loss of ammonia by 70 percent.
The Eastern Slurry Acidification project will involve Russia and Belarus into the EU project, in which the goal is to promote the use of these new technologies. The partners from Russia and Belarus will become familiar with three types of acidification technologies. In turn, this project will improve the chances of the EU project to make a positive impact on the Baltic Sea, as all countries in the drainage area will be working together.


The east Izu has 400 kinds of seaweed growing in the sea, the greatest number in Japan, due to the various depth of seabed. Spring is said to be the season of seaweed in the year, with the richest variety and beautiful colors and shapes. At SORANO Beach Books & Cafe, the decoration theme is "Seaweed blossoms appreciation”, for you to appreciate seaweed just as appreciate flowers blossoms.
◎ The special seats facing the sea and surrounded by seaweed Come to check the sofa where you can lie down and relax, decorated with the panels of seaweed. Enjoy the colors and shapes of glittering seaweed under the sunlight.
◎ The bookshelf decorated with seaweed photos Come to check the book shelf containing about 600 books. You can enjoy the art of seaweed by the pressed seaweed craft photos on the shelf while choosing books.
◎ The acrylic glass table with seaweed sealed in Come to check the pressed seaweed craft sealed in the glass tables of the café, and appreciate its colors and shape closely while having a cup of tea.


The Sea of Anar is a cold but beautiful crystal blue sea. The name is given to it by the Sybren Imperium. The word "anar", in the Sybrenese language, translates roughly as both "north" and "cold". The Sea of Anar is swept with strong seasonal storms, but fishing vessels venturing into this water come back with excellent hauls. This sea is the home of the Giant Anarian Sea Turtle.
This website was last updated October 5, 2021. Copyright 1990-2021 David M. Roomes.


A profitable ecotourism industry has arisen around this species involving organized "shark feeds", in which groups of reef sharks are attracted to divers using bait. Some US$6,000,000 is spent annually on shark viewing in the Bahamas, where at some sites a single living Caribbean reef shark has a value between US$13,000 and US$40,000 (compared to a one-time value of US$50–60 for a dead shark). This practice has drawn controversy, as opponents argue that the sharks may learn to associate humans with food, increasing the chances of a shark attack, and that the removal of reef fishes for bait may damage the local ecosystem. Conversely, proponents maintain that shark feeds contribute to conservation by incentivizing the protection of sharks and educating people about them. Thus far, there has been little evidence that shark feeds have increased the risk of attack in the surrounding area. Shark feeding has been outlawed off the coast of Florida, but continues at other locations in the Caribbean.
Based on morphological similarities, Jack Garrick in 1982 grouped this species with the bignose shark (C. altimus) and the sandbar shark (C. plumbeus), while Leonard Compagno in 1988 placed it as the sister species of the grey reef shark (C. amblyrhynchos). A phylogenetic analysis based on allozyme data, published by Gavin Naylor in 1992, indicated that the Caribbean reef shark is the sister taxon to a clade formed by the Galapagos shark (C. galapagensis), dusky shark (C. obscurus), oceanic whitetip shark (C. longimanus), and the blue shark (Prionace glauca). However, more work is required to fully resolve the interrelationships within Carcharhinus.
WWF works to preserve the coral habitats where reef sharks live through the creation and improved management of marine protected areas, elaboration of fisheries management plans, and the introduction of fishing bans to protect vulnerable species including reef sharks. WWF also promoted the understanding that communities can derive more economic value from reef sharks through tourism than through their capture. We support local communities to set up appropriate ecotourism systems and infrastructure to ensure well-managed and sustainable shark tourism operations.
Despite its abundance in certain areas, the Caribbean reef shark is one of the least-studied large requiem sharks. They are believed to play a major role in shaping Caribbean reef communities. These sharks are more active at night, with no evidence of seasonal changes in activity or migration. Juveniles tend to remain in a localized area throughout the year, while adults range over a wider area.
In older literature, the scientific name of this species was often given as C. menisorrah. The blacktail reef shark (C. wheeleri), native to the western Indian Ocean, is now regarded as the same species as the grey reef shark by most authors. It was originally distinguished from the grey reef shark by a white tip on the first dorsal fin, a shorter snout, and one fewer upper tooth row on each side. Based on morphological characters, vertebral counts, and tooth shapes, Garrick (1982) concluded the grey reef shark is most closely related to the silvertip shark (C. albimarginatus). This interpretation was supported by a 1992 allozyme phylogenetic analysis by Lavery.
Take on your activities with high-quality Reef Flip Flops from Academy Sports. This gear is designed to motivate and help you get the most out of your activities. When it comes to Reef Flip Flops you never want to settle for anything less than the best. That's why we feature this top-tier brand that provides products you can trust and will want to show off. Quality materials combine with exceptional design to keep you feeling your best. Shop our incredible assortment now to find your new go-to's, or find the perfect birthday or holiday gift for a friend or family member. Any fan of this popular brand would love a gift from this great selection. After all, having the best gear is the best motivation to get up, get out, and get active. You can always count on Academy to have the best assortment of outdoor and indoor essentials that are reliable and ready for anything you are.
Ancient reefs buried within stratigraphic sections are of considerable interest to geologists because they provide paleo-environmental information about the location in Earth's history. In addition, reef structures within a sequence of sedimentary rocks provide a discontinuity which may serve as a trap or conduit for fossil fuels or mineralizing fluids to form petroleum or ore deposits.


Scuba Dive at the Great Barrier Reef
If you want to see this world wonder in its entirety, you will have to go to space (a trip we aren’t opposed to, if only it were a bit more accessible), but we recommend a closer look anyway. Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral formation in the world and is home to whales, shipwrecks, sharks, and more than 1,600 species of colorful fish. Take a scuba diving tour of the reef out of Cairns to swim in and out of the coral exploring the world’s best diving location. It’s a breathtaking experience, but don’t hold your breath too long, or you’ll have to quit the dive early.
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A younger grey whale has been sighted off the southern French coast in current days, misplaced in the Mediterranean and making an attempt unsuccessfully to make it again to its pure habitat, the northern Pacific.
The whale, eight metres lengthy and round 15 months outdated, had already been seen off Morocco in March, after which once more in Italian waters, first close to Naples, then Rome after which Genoa.
Pacific grey whales are native to the Pacific, with a lot of them spending winters off the Mexican state of Baja California and summers in Alaska.
"It's possible that the whale, born in California, got lost in the Beaufort Sea [in the Arctic] during its first feeding season," Adrien Gannier, a veterinary surgeon and a member of the rescue community, advised AFP.
"Instead of returning down to the Pacific, it probably went the Atlantic way and then got trapped in the Mediterranean," he mentioned.
Grey whales often keep close to the coast and feed in shallow waters.
Mr Gannier mentioned he had noticed the younger cetacean close to Bormes-Les-Mimosas, on the French Riviera, the place the port authorities managed to entice it to take course again into the open sea.
The hope is now that the younger whale makes its well beyond the Gulf of Lion and the Spanish coast, exits the Mediterranean close to Gibraltar and travels north throughout the Atlantic.
"It seems in quite good health, but thin because its feeding pattern is not adapted to the Mediterranean," Mr Gannier mentioned.
Although grey whales can journey as much as 19,000 kilometres throughout their annual migration, they hardly ever get this misplaced.
The final time a grey whale was sighted in the Mediterranean was in 2010, off the Israeli and Spanish coasts, Mr Gannier mentioned.
primarily based on web site supplies www.rte.ie


Whale watching cruises in Orange County run from Dana Point and Newport Beach. Seasonal sightings along the coast include blue whales and gray whales. Any time of year, you may also see fin whales, humpback whales, minke whales, and orcas.
Dana Point is famous for sightings of dolphins by the thousands. If you want to know more about them, check the Guide to Whales and Dolphins of the California Coast.
Best Time for Whale Watching in Orange County
Whale watching season in Orange County is nearly year round, but some of the whales are there only part of the year.
Blue whale season is May through November. Gray Whales are there from November through April. The big pods of dolphins often seen at Dana Point are around all year long. So are the sea lions, making for a high probability of seeing a marine animal no matter when you go.
Whale Watching Cruises from Dana Point
Dana Point is the most popular spot for whale watching in the OC. It's easy to know that from the enthusiastic reviews from people watched whales from there. That could be because of Dana Point's two-mile-wide, east-west facing coastline. I draws the whales and dolphins closer to the shore. But whatever the reason, Dana Point is the place to go for a fun whale watching cruise.
Captain Dave's is a very highly rated whale watch operator in Dana Point.
They have the best-equipped boats - and the best guest reviews - I've heard of in all of California. Their catamaran is equipped with underwater hydrophones so you can hear the animals' calls. And underwater viewing pods give you a better, eye-to-eye look.
According to experts, gray whales breach - that's the spectacular jump-out-of-the-water and make a big splash move - more often near Dana Point and Laguna.
That's another reason to make the trip down to Dana Point if you can.
Whale Watching Cruises from Newport Beach
You can also have fun on a whale watch from Newport Beach if that's more convenient. Whale watching tours in Newport Beach include Dana Wharf Fishing and Whale Watching, Davey's Locker and Ocean Explorer Cruises.
Some of these companies add on extra charges for fuel, something to check for, so you know what to expect regarding prices.
Newport Landing partners with Riter Aviation to offer unique whale watching trips from an airplane. See the details at their website.
Whale Watching from the Shore around Dana Point and Orange County
The best place for Dana Point whale watching from land is from the trail along the headlands near the marina, but it's not the only place you can try. For more ideas, check this list of the best whale watching parks in Orange County.
More things Whale-Related in Orange County
The annual Dana Point Festival of Whales occurs in March, with so much to do that it stretches over two weekends.
How to Make the Most of Whale Watching in Orange County
No matter where you watch the whales, some things are the same. Get tips for picking the best cruise and ways to have the most enjoyable experience in the California Whale Watching Guide.
Whale watching trips are somewhat expensive. You may be tempted to go for the lowest price, but that could be a mistake. If you're looking for that trip of a lifetime, your whale watch may not be the time to go bargain-shopping.
If you're looking for a whale watching discount, you may find one using services like Travel Zoo, Groupon, and others. Here's something to think about before you look for them: I've seen lots of online complaints and reviews that talk about hidden costs and poor quality. In fact, it seems like the poorer the quality of the trip, the more likely you are to find a discount.


The recent quiet period in Atlantic hurricane season may be coming to an end next week.
We are monitoring a weak disturbance over the Caribbean, slowly drifting northwestward, for the potential of tropical cyclogenesis next week.
The Atlantic hurricane season has been quiet in recent weeks largely due to cooler than average water temperatures in the main development region, and higher than average vertical wind shear (winds of varying direction and speeds at different levels of the atmosphere which tend to rip storms apart).
One of our reliable computer models is now developing this area of low pressure (for the second day in a row) into a potential tropical storm or hurricane early / mid next week.
This computer model keeps the potential storm on a northwestward track, not entering the core of the Gulf of Mexico, nor coming near Texas.
Boosting confidence in the possibility that this disturbance may develop, just today the Climate Prediction Center’s tropical hazards outlook began highlighting the eastern Gulf of Mexico as a “moderate risk” for tropical development between the week one and two outlooks.
It should be noted that the GFS model, another respectable long-range computer forecast, has not been developing a closed low pressure system during this time period, and is not anticipating tropical cyclogenesis.
Stay with the First Warning Weather team for updates as we approach the traditional peak of hurricane season.


I am the Science Editor for the Health Sciences Faculty of the University of Pretoria.
However, I have a continuing interest in the movement patterns of animals in their environments and thus maintain collaboration with the MIMMP. I am particularly interested in how different sexes and ages of elephant seals respond to their environment. Differing energy requirements as a result of extreme sexual dimorphism can influence foraging behaviour in a highly variable environment. I am interested in how elephant seals respond to changes in sea-surface temperature, chlorophyll concentrations, sea-surface height anomalies and primary productivity. I completed my PhD in 2010 and have been working with the MIMMP since then. I spent a field season on beautiful Marion Island working with amazing seals and killer whales in 2006 and 2007.


Early Marine Survival, Movement, and Habitat Use of Juvenile Steelhead Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as Determined by an Acoustic Array: Quatsino Sound, British Columbia David W. Welch*1,3, Bruce R. Ward2, and Sonia D. Batten3
2 B.C. Fisheries Research and Development, 2204 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 Canada
3 Kintama Research Inc., 321-2815 Departure Bay Rd, Nanaimo, B.C. V9S 5P4
LaDouceur & Jacobs?
* Corresponding author
A pilot study was conducted to assess the performance of an acoustic tracking array in a large marine system (45x42 km). An array consisting of six separate acoustic detection lines was placed on the seabed of Quatsino Sound, for two months. Forty steelhead smolts were surgically implanted with long-lived acoustic tags in the Waukwass River, and 31 subsequently entered the ocean from the river. Tracking success of the individual acoustic lines forming the array approached 100%. The array was successful in describing the movements, habitat use, and fate of all tagged smolts entering the ocean. Twenty-seven smolts moved through the fjord system to the open shelf using a variety of routes, and did not return. Four smolts remained within Quatsino Sound, two of which were detected moving over the inner lines of the array 1-2 days before the array was recovered, and two were detected moving up a long blind inlet, but did not return. Early marine survival in Quatsino Sound was either 94% or 100%, contradicting frequent assumptions that this period is a critical bottleneck determining recruitment. A permanent west coast array would provide large benefits to our understanding of marine animals occupying the continental shelf and slope regions.
The early ocean life history of Pacific salmon smolts is the least understood phase of the complex life history of salmon, chiefly because of the difficulty of studying the movement patterns of individual smolts. Although there are now several research programs that have begun to study the ocean biology of Pacific salmon based on newly-developed large epi-pelagic trawls (review by Brodeur et al 2000?), there are significant limitations on the interpretation of data collected from research programs that capture (and kill) fish at sea.
Because capture almost invariably involves the death of the animal, the detailed behaviour that allowed the animal to move to a specific geographic position in the ocean is missing. Thus, although sampling of fish caught at sea provides important information on the size, energetic status, and feeding success of the collected animals as a group, interpretation of such data is necessarily limited by the need to make some sort of assumption that the animals were static, and did not make significant movements between study regions. A second common assumption is that the stock composition of a sample of fish does not vary over time, so that differences evident over time can be interpreted as temporal changes in the characteristics of the same group of fish, rather than changes brought about by differential movements of different populations of the same species.
Such assumptions may be unwarranted. Given the remarkable ability of Pacific salmon to return precisely to the vicinity of their own birthplace (e.g. Quinn 1993; Quinn et al 1999), the marine feeding grounds and ocean migration pathways taken to get to them may be as population-specific as their rivers of origin, but as yet undiscovered. Although there is, as yet, little specific evidence for sharply defined and population specific movements in the ocean, the evidence for remarkable population-specific migration behaviours is known in both birds (e.g. xxx) and insects (e.g. Monarch butterflies xxx). It seems unlikely that marine fish, with their evolutionarily ancient lineage and the vast size of the oceans, would not have developed migratory abilities at least as sophisticated as those of birds and insects.
Accepting the possibility that marine animals such as Pacific salmon may shuttle between two postal addresses– their well-defined and long accepted freshwater spawning grounds, and their as yet undiscovered ocean migration pathways and marine feeding grounds, project "POST"– the Pacific Ocean Salmon Tracking project, was initiated.
Where do salmon go? What do they do when they get there? How do they return to spawn in their home rivers? How do changes in the ocean environment affect their survival? Underlying these questions is the belief that salmon may have "two zip codes"– or postal addresses– homing not only back to their rivers of origin, but also to specific feeding grounds in the ocean.
The marine ecology of the North Pacific can be broken down into three fundamental ecological zones– the pelagic offshore overlying the abyssal plains (water depths of 3-4 kms), the continental shelf (depths 200m), and the narrow continental slope region separating the two (depths ranging from 200m at the shelf edge down to the abyssal plain). As water depths increase rapidly in the slope region, with an average gradient of just over 4º in most regions of the world (Emery 1980, Khan 2000, Wiseman and Ovey 1953), the 1,000m isobath is typically found only some 10-11 kms seaward of the edge of the continental shelf. Shoreward of the shelf edge, the shallow shelf region can be very wide in many parts of the world’s oceans. However, off the West Coast of North and South America the shelf is frequently only 15-30 kms wide, making this area one of the narrowest (and longest) continental margins in the world. Because most marine animals consistently occupy specific depth zones, efforts to monitor the movements of animals remaining in the shelf or slope water regions are perhaps simplest to implement off the West Coast of the Americas. Partly for this reason, the shelf tracking component of POST is focussed in the Pacific.
Pacific salmon provide an excellent prototype organism for studying marine movements because there is great social and economic interest in these animals and they occupy both shelf and offshore regions of the North Pacific for extended periods of time. The oceanic phase of the life history is also vastly understudied relative to the great body of freshwater research that has been undertaken in the past. In general, the migratory movements of all species of juvenile Pacific salmon (excluding steelhead) are confined to the shelf-slope region regions for many months, and some stocks eventually migrate to the open ocean after reaching the Aleutians, while other stocks appear to take up permanent residence on the shelf (Hartt and Dell, 1986; Welch, in prep.). Once past their first year of life in the ocean, most species of Pacific salmon take up a pelagic life style in the offshore, while two species (coho and chinook) appear to have both shelf-resident and offshore variants (Groot and Margolis 1991).
As the marine movements of individual salmon are poorly understood, a concerted research program using new electronic tagging technology offers the opportunity to make major breakthroughs in our understanding of how salmon use the ocean: where they go, how they use the structure of the ocean environment to accomplish these migrations, and what they experience when they reach their marine feeding grounds. POST is intended to address a number of major research questions, whose eventual resolution would likely contribute significantly to the improved management and conservation of Pacific salmon:
Understand how Pacific salmon use the ocean environment
Identify distribution and habitat use by key species and life stages.
Identify important oceanic features & critical habitats
Do salmon respond to sharp thermal boundaries?
Do salmon depend upon specific ocean structural features?
Do salmon use common migration pathways?
Examine the coupling between biology and the physical environment– How do different species respond to changing ocean conditions?
Establish latitudinal patterns of movement and habitat utilization by steelhead
Establish whether Pacific salmon have "two zip codes", adding to the marine life history information that is already widely known and accepted about the freshwater phase of the life history
Determine how longer-term changes in ocean conditions relate to changes in fish condition, growth, survival, and distribution
Materials and Methods Study Location
Quatsino Sound (50.47ºN; 127.94ºW) is an extensive marine fjord located in northwest Vancouver Island (Fig. 1). In addition to a long (32 km) east-west oriented fjord providing access to the narrow continental shelf lying off the west coast of Vancouver Island, and then the open ocean, the fjord system contains two blind arms, Holberg Inlet (45 kms) at the interior end, and Neroutsos Inlet (21 kms) lying just west and south of Quatsino Narrows, a narrowing of the fjord where the semi-diurnal (?) tidal currents reach xx km/hr (Coastal Pilot or Thompson’s book?).
The Waukwass River (50.58ºN; 127.41ºW) drains into the southern end of Holberg Inlet, at the farthest interior end of the fjord system. (The interior inlet south of Quatsino Narrows is formally known as Rupert Inlet, but we have referred to the entire interior area of the fjord as Holberg Inlet for simplicity). The Waukwass River drains an area of ?? kms, and forms the adjacent watershed to the Keogh River. Both watersheds are located on the same mountain, and lie in the same bioclimatic zone (ref?).
In common with all west coast Vancouver Island steelhead stocks, the marine survival of Waukwass River steelhead is high, and the status of this population is excellent. Despite the near-proximity of the Keogh River steelhead population to the Waukwass River—the river mouths lie only 11 kms away apart, but on opposite sides of the northern tip of Vancouver Island, marine survival of all steelhead stocks on the east coast of Vancouver Island dropped dramatically in the 1990s, reducing the number of adults returning to these systems to a few dozen adults, as compared to several thousand adults in the late 1980s (Ward et al ??; Welch et al 2001). A secondary objective of the Census of Marine Life project was to compare the initial marine movements of these two populations because of their radically different marine survivals. In this paper we report on the early marine movements of Quatsino Sound steelhead smolts.
A total of six acoustic detection lines were placed in Quatsino Sound on May 22nd, prior to the surgical implantation and release of steelhead smolts with acoustic tags in the Waukwass River (Fig. 1). Each line consisted of either two or three Vemco VR-2 acoustic receivers placed on the seabed in a line perpendicular to the local axis of the inlet. The paired acoustic lines E-F and G-H were spaced approximately 10 kms apart in order to establish speed and direction of movement for any tagged smolts present in upper Holberg Inlet or the outer reach of Quatsino Sound. Paired listening lines were not placed in Neroutsos Inlet because of limitated amount of equipment available.
Acoustic receivers were deployed by attaching them to a groundline, using technology similar to that used in commercial fishing. Receivers were held about 0.5 m above the seabed with the hydrophone oriented upwards by attaching them to a vertical line connected to the groundline and with pressure-resistant floatation attached to the upper end to maintain the receiver with the hydrophone pointed towards the surface. The flotation was located approximately 4 m above the hydrophone in order to form only a small acoustic shadow (ca. 3 º). In cases where water depths exceeded 200 m (the maximum rated depth of the receivers) the length of the vertical risers was increased to keep the receiver above 200m.
The entire array was placed on the seabed, with no floats or equipment visible from the surface. Individual lines were recovered either by triggering an acoustic release on one end of the line, or by grappling for the groundline. This was done partly to ensure that equipment would not be molested during the nearly two month deployment, but also because an important design principle for the continental-scale array to be built is that is must be placed on the seabed, where it will not constitute a hazard to navigation or to commercial fishing operations. Although the eventual design of the full array will use different deployment methodologies, the current Census of Marine Life pilot project was intended to adhere to this design philosophy.
Spacing between receivers varied with the local geography and the number of receivers used. In all cases spacing between adjacent VR2 receivers was 850m or less. The greatest measured separation from a receiver at the end of an acoustic listening line to the shoreline was 328 m.
The Vemco VR-2 acoustic receiver is an autonomous battery powered underwater unit capable of long-term placement in the ocean (up to 15 months using a single lithium “D”-cell battery). Receivers were programmed with a special purpose internal code map which would detect acoustically coded tags manufactured to our specification to ensure that they were unique to our study. Acoustic tags from studies other than our own would not be recorded by our receivers; conversely, our acoustic tags would not be recorded by any other investigation’s receivers. We chose this approach because the continental-scale array planned for future deployment can potentially monitor 256,000 unique codes at the same time. As modern acoustic tags can have lifespans of months or years, it is critical for the integrity of future scientific studies that the uniqueness of a specific acoustic code be protected. Our study was designed to adhere to this principle, by using a unique code map which we could be certain was not in use elsewhere.
Steelhead smolts were surgically implanted with either a Vemco V8SC-2L or –6L acoustic tag (28 mm and 20 mm long, by 9 mm diameter). Each tag was programmed to broadcast its code randomly at an average time interval of 60 seconds, and actual transmission intervals distributed uniformly in the 30-90 second range. Projected lifespans for this programming choice was 134 and 465 days for the 6L and 2L tags, respectively. The larger V8SC-2L tags with their 15 month lifespans were superfluous for the purposes of this two month study, but we chose to use these tags as well to examine whether that these very long-lived tags could be used with the size of wild smolts encountered in the field study.
Wild smolts were collected from two rotary screw traps placed in the Waukwass River, several hundred meters upstream from the river mouth and 3.1 kms from the first acoustic detection line (RM) lying off the river mouth. (All distances quoted in this paper represent minimum feasible straight line paths between two points). Surgical protocols are described in more detail elsewhere (Welch et al In Press). Briefly, smolts were anaesthetised using clove oil and surgically implanted on the river bank at the collection point using a specially built portable battery powered surgical table. The main deviation from our previous protocol was the use of oxytetracycline, a broad spectrum antibiotic, at a dosage of 20 mg/g body weight, which was injected into the body cavity through the incision prior to insertion of the tag. Smolts were released in groups of 5 or 6 back into the river at the surgery site during daylight hours after holding them in a darkened and aerated recovery tank for periods ranging from 10 minutes to approximately one hour. All smolts swam normally at release and showed no evidence of visually abnormal behaviour.
A total of 40 steelhead smolts were collected and surgically implanted without respect for size, with tagging chosen to match the time of the peak of the emigration. Smolt migration was delayed in 2002 by several weeks from normal because of low water levels caused by an unusually dry spring. As the Waukwass River is a wild river with little human influence other than past forestry operations, smolts were all wild, and likely constituted a mixture of 2 and 3 year old smolts at the time of tagging (scales were not collected). Eighteen smolts were present in two rotary screw traps and implanted on 22 May, 2002 (mean fork length: 17.6 cm, range: 15.9-20.7 cm). On 26 May an additional 22 smolts were recovered from the traps and surgically implanted (mean fork length: 17.45 cm, range: 15.5-21.4 cm), bringing the study group to the target 40 animals.
Results Two of the initially tagged 18 smolts were recaptured in the traps on 26 May, two days after release; their abdominal incisions were visually inspected before being released again. The smolts appeared to be in generally healthy condition, inflammation was not evident, and all sutures were still secure.
All receivers making up the six detection lines were recovered (Table 1). One receiver, the southernmost of 3 receivers on the outer detection line (E) failed as a result of flooding with seawater and contained no data. As a result, the outermost detection line did not provide complete coverage of smolts passing on the southern side of the fjord.
Detection Success A total of 31 of the 40 smolts initially implanted in the river were subsequently detected on the first detection line (RM). The location of the RM line was placed 2,700m from the river mouth (Fig. 1; Table 1) to ensure that any detected smolts were present in the estuary, and not just detected in freshwater at the river mouth. We report our results in the context of these 31 animals forming the study population, and comment on the fate of the 9 animals not entering the ocean later. Timing of movements are based on either time since release in freshwater or the time since first detection in the ocean, as appropriate, with times between receiver pairs calculated as the last time of detection at one receiver to the time of first detection at the next receiver.
All 31 smolts detected entering the ocean at the RM line were subsequently identified moving over the remainder of the array. Conversely, no smolts were detected on outer lines that were not detected first detected on the RM line. No tag codes not used in the study were recorded by the tracking array. Thus there was a 100% success rate for re-detection on smolts entering the ocean, and zero false positives (detection of a code known not to be present). In addition, no steelhead tagged in the simultaneous Queen Charlotte Strait study on the east coast of Vancouver Island (Welch et al., Submitted) were detected entering Quatsino Sound, although these tags used a common coding scheme.
The two outer lines in Quatsino Sound provide some information on the detection rate for the array lines, although the failure of one of the three outer receivers limits the comparison somewhat. The innermost line (F) detected qqq
When the array was recovered on July 2nd, 2002, 37-39 days after tagging, all but 4 of the smolts (87%) had passed the outer lines leading to the open shelf (Lines E and F; Figure 1). All four of these residual 4 smolts apparently remained in Holberg Inlet, but their fates were different; 2 smolts were heard on line H on the 1st and 2nd July. The other 2 smolts were last heard on line G on 27th May & 12th June, subsequent to being first detected on Line H. As Holberg Inlet is very long, extending 20 kms northwest of Line G, the fate of these animals is uncertain; they may have either remained resident further up the inlet or died.
The 27 smolts which reached the open ocean (passing over Lines F and E in the process) took a variety of routes to get there (Fig. 2). These routes can be roughly classified in three groups:
I. Rapid Directed Movements (N=20)
From RM straight to lines F/E – 2 smolts
From RM to Holberg Inlet then to lines F/E – 16 smolts (13 were detected on line G as well as line H)
From RM to Neroutsos Inlet (line I) then to lines E/F – 2 smolts
II. Less Directed Movements (N=7)
From RM to Holberg Inlet, then to Neroutsos Inlet then to lines F/E – 2 smolts (1 heard on line G as well as line H)
From RM to Holberg Inlet, back to RM then to lines F/E – 4 smolts (2 heard on line G as well as line H)
From RM to line F, then to Neroutsos Inlet then back to line F – 1 smolt
Estuary Resident (N=4)
Repeated detection in Holberg Inlet, with no evidence of departure from the interior fjord.
With the exception of the last smolt pathway, all smolts that reached line F were either not detected again, or detected on line E (the outermost line) and then not detected again. Once these animals reach the entrance to Quatsino Sound they thus appear to leave Quatsino Sound for the open sea and do not return. Apart from the 2 smolts still in Holberg Inlet when the array was removed, the last detections occurred before June 21st. If the smolts had re-entered Quatsino Sound it seems likely that they would have been detected.
Timing of Movements
The time taken from release in freshwater after surgical implantation to detection at the RM line (Fig. 2) was comparatively rapid, with a mean time of 3.2 days. The time taken from release in freshwater to reaching line F varied from 7 to >30 days (Fig. 3). >30 days represents those smolts still in Holberg Inlet at the end of the study.
A comparison of the relationship between the length of time to reach RM and the length of time to reach Line F provided little evidence for a correlation between initial speed of movement and subsequent speed of movement within Quatsino Sound (Fig. xx). Thus those smolts slow to reach the river mouth were not necessarily also the slowest to reach the mouth of Quatsino Sound. The 4 smolts that did not reach the mouth of Quatsino Sound during the study had some of the fastest times from release to RM (2-4 days).
The speed of movement between lines was calculated using the shortest possible route between lines and the time from the last record at one line to the first record at the next line. Speed was calculated in terms of body lengths per second using the fork length measurements made of each fish when the tag was implanted.
The frequency histogram (Fig. Xx) shows the speeds of all measured movements between lines (a total of 158 movements, and an average of 5 movements per fish). Most fish moved at about 1 BL sec-1. A few records of speeds over 3 BL sec-1 may reflect the movements of a predator that has swallowed a tagged fish. (Sonia– can you check and see if the tag with these rapid movements subsequently made it to the open sea, or were they for the tags that remained within the inlet system?) Its also possible to examine the speed of movement between lines according to the behaviours of the fish. Three groups can be identified (Fig 5):
Rapid Emigration. Fish moved quickly out to the open shelf. Four fish either went from RM straight to lines F and E or were heard very briefly on lines H or I before being heard at F/E.
Extensive estuarine residence, followed by emigration to the open sea. Fish spending sometime in Holberg Inlet before migrating out to the shelf. This was the dominant pattern of behaviour with 15 fish taking this route.
“Permanent” Estuarine Residence. Four fish remained in Holberg Inlet for the 37-39 day duration of the study. (Note that the array was deployed for two months, but that we delayed tagging until the peak of the run, which was delayed by several weeks in 2002). Movement of these four smolts after the array was lifted is unknown, so the duration of estuarine residence is unknown.
The remaining 7 fish either also made extensive use of Neroutsos Inlet or went from Holberg inlet back to RM before moving out to the open sea.
The figure shows the mean speed (error bars are standard deviation) for each behaviour type. Note though that the ‘Fast Migrants’ are both few in number and, because they headed more or less straight out, there are limited detected movements between lines. Number of movements between lines (n) for the 3 groups respectively were 12, 79, and 30.
Although differences in mean speed are not significant, one explanation for the apparently slower speed of the ‘Fast Migrants’ is that they swim slowly and steadily out of Quatsino Sound while the fish that remain within system for a while spend days in one inlet and then move relatively rapidly from line to line. This is borne out if the mean speed per line movement is examined. The figure below shows the mean speed (and standard deviation) for the most common line movements (note that some are uni-directional movements, some bi-directional).
Movements from RM to F were the slowest with movements within Holberg inlet (between G and H) being some of the fastest. The fastest movement of all was from line F to E, suggesting that once fish head out of Quatsino Sound the movement is rapid. Some further support for this view comes from the average number of detections made on the two outer lines; individual detections on the inner line of each tagged fish averaged 17.7 times greater than the detections on the outer line, just 10 kms to the west (range: 1.7-79.0; N=17 fish).
(Comparison of Two Outer Line Detections: A total of 17 & 18 fish tags detected on the two lines respectively, 9 of the tagged smolts detected on inner line only, and 1 tagged smolt detected on outer line only;<- Check this; these numbers don’t seem to make sense).
A similar higher “dwell time” was evident when comparing the ratio of detections over the inner and outer detection lines in Holberg Inlet north of the Quatsino Narrows (Lines G & H); detections over the innermost line were 23.4 times higher than over the northern line (range: 0.1-409.0). Here, however, the results are less clear-cut because the majority of animals that made extensive movements up Holberg Inlet also moved back down; if they happened to reverse direction over the northern-most line a greater number of detections would be expected over the southern line as the smolts would pass over this line twice. (Investigate whether the timing of detection peaks on these two lines indicates whether each smolt moved over G then H, then H (again) then G; could do an interesting graph of movements for each smolt, reconstructing dwell time, since the y-axis will be the number of detections; would need to correct for simultaneous detections on multiple receivers on each line (time differences of <30 seconds)). In contrast, the ratio of detections over the RM line and the inner Holberg line were very similar (1.2; range 0.02-5.7), suggesting some degree of orientation so that smolts moving in the upper reaches of Holberg Inlet may on average increase their swim speeds as they search for the exit from the inner fjord.
In summary, the slowest average speeds were measured when calculated for the longest distances considered, and the fastest speeds measured for the shortest distances. This suggests that movement is not strongly uni-directional and that considerable milling occurs. Mean speed drops as would be expected if the animals spend significant time and effort at exploring their local environment. However, none of the animals reaching the outer reach of Quatsino Sound returned to the fjord (check this), suggesting that once the open shelf was reached the steelhead were able to orient to prevent entering Quatsino Sound again.
Survival and Detection Efficiency (Comparison of Two Outer Line Detections: A total of 17 & 18 fish tags detected on the two lines respectively, 9 of the tagged smolts detected on inner line only, and 1 tagged smolt detected on outer line only;).
At 1 BL/sec, it would take a 15 cm smolt 11.6 days to cover the 150 kms distance between the mouth of the Keogh River and the outermost acoustic line in Quatsino Sound. The lack of detection of either the ecvi or west coast of Vancouver Island smolts in the other area is perhaps not surprising, but does indicate that the two study areas are likely not visited by smolts from the other region.
Discussion Mention failure of one VR2.
Make point that given high detection rates and demonstrated long-term survival and tag retention by implanted smolts (Welch et al In Press), the optimal study design should involve placing large numbers of acoustic receivers out for detection, and using relatively few tagged fish. In other words, in considering the funding of such studies, it makes more sense to place most effort in placing the array and letting the tagged fish move over it; the more geographically extensive the array, and the longer that it is maintained in the ocean, the greater the information that is returned on what the tagged animals are doing. This is in direct contrast with traditional tagging studies, which must rely on releasing large numbers of tags in order to recover a few tagged fish at a later date. For example, if we had replaced the array after initially retrieving it in early July, it is conceivable that we would have eventually detected the two smolts last heard on the inner array (Lines ??) one and two (?) days before retrieval of the equipment. Similarly, the only two tagged smolts whose movements are unaccounted for were last detected moving into the far northern extension of Holberg Inlet. It is conceivable that they might eventually have moved south and then out to the environment of the open shelf, which a permanent array would have detected.
The lack of acoustic listening lines farther north in Holberg Inlet illustrates how a more widely spaced array would provide further valuable information. The current method of array deployment, which involved large quantities of anchors, rope, and additional weights was costly and labour intensive. The major goals of the current experiment were, however, to demonstrate (1) that deployment of a large-scale acoustic tracking array would result in substantial new biological environment on the movements and survival of small fish in a technically demanding environment and (2) that it is technically feasible to design and run a large geographic array (many lines, multiple receivers per line), and to design it so that it would be possible to recover all of the equipment after several months at sea.
Both goals were clearly met. We surgically implanted a combination of acoustic tags with life-spans of either 4.5 months and 20(?) months into wild steelhead smolts, demonstrating that available tracking equipment can be used to track even quite small smolts (15-18 cm) with tags that would allow tracking their movements for substantially more than one year at sea. (In fact, the major difficulty with the surgical implantation of these smolts revolved around the fact that their guts were packed with large amount of food that they had fed upon within the screw traps, which apparently also acted as a collector for their food. In future, we might consider holding the smolts in a large enclosure using filtered river water to allow their guts to clear prior to surgery).
Given that important new biological information could clearly be collected from a much more geographically wide-spread array, the next issue involves the engineering of a permanent continental-scale acoustic tracking array for the West Coast of North America (Welch et al Submitted and In Prep.). As all of the hardware components needed to produce this array now exist, the major remaining obstacle to a permanent seabed tracking array primarily involve some engineering issues. The major uncertainties with the construction of a widespread, modular, distributed array involve questions concerning the expected life-span of the individual seabed nodes making up the array. Such questions will not be fully answered until large numbers of nodes are deployed and statistics on overall “survivability” are accumulated. However, we have demonstrated with the current experiment that the building of such an array is feasible, since it primarily involves a scaling up from existing technology, in both geographic scale and duration of deployment. More importantly, however, we have demonstrated with the current experiment that marine research can pay major dividends in terms of an improved understanding of the ocean life history of Pacific salmon (or other marine organisms). Our results indicate that a properly deployed array can provide detailed understanding of marine habitat use (areas of residence or non-residence), plus a wealth of information on direction and rates of movement using relatively few animals. Finally, it appears that we have been able to provide detailed information on ocean survival over the first few weeks of life in the ocean. Early ocean survival in Quatsino Sound is high (94%), and contradicts the common assumption that mortality during this period plays the major role in determining marine survival of salmon.
Our current observations could be strengthened by the development of a modified acoustic tag which would ensure that a tagged animal consumed by a predator would either stop transmitting (and thus die along with the host) or transmit a modified signal that would indicate that the host animal had been eaten.
STUFF FROM OTHER PAPER (OCEANOLOGICA ACTA) Acoustic tags small enough to be carried by salmon cannot store environmental information for later transmission, so a picture of the movement of tagged Pacific salmon and their environmental conditions needs to be built up by having the position and current environmental conditions for individual salmon logged by multiple receivers. Acoustic tags send out information on the identity of the tagged animal and (for some types of tags) currently experienced environmental conditions (depth or temperature). Self-contained submersible acoustic receivers capable of detecting and logging the movements of a tagged juvenile are now available that can operate autonomously for over a year underwater (e.g. Voegeli et al 1998; Lacroix and Voegeli 2000). This then allows the movement patterns of individual animals to be reconstructed, essentially by “connecting the dots”: knowing the date and time an individual is heard in the vicinity of each acoustic receiver, speed and distance between each pair of receivers can be determined.
Recently developed technology offers the prospect of putting out many long-lived low cost acoustic receivers on the seafloor, in a series of detection lines which can act as a grid over which thousands of individually identifiable tagged animals might move at will, with their movements passively recorded by the seabed array (Fig. 2). Because the detection technology is relatively low-cost, the possibility of a continental scale acoustic tracking array for the shelf and slope regions is potentially quite economic.
Because acoustic tags offer lifetimes of 4.5 months to several years (e.g. Lacroix and Voegeli 2000) and experimental studies demonstrate that they can be successfully implanted into salmon smolts as small as 10.5 cms and retained long-term (Welch et al in review), the possibility now exists to tag and track the movements of many animals for most of their life cycle. By building up a dense array of low-cost receivers sited on the seabed, it is potentially possible to reconstruct the movement patterns in great detail. This is perhaps the most ambitious aspect of the POST project; to help demonstrate the feasibility of a continental scale acoustic tracking array on the entire continental shelf. Curiously, despite considerable recent interest in the possibility of seafloor observatories by the oceanographic community (e.g. National Research Council 2000), almost all of the proposals to date have involved highly expensive networks in the deep ocean consisting of a relatively few nodes cabled to land. While such a network would provide a high bandwidth but relatively sparse network, project POST would provide the complement: a broadly distributed but low cost and low bandwidth acoustic tracking array that could be run off long-lived lithium batteries. In this paper we focus on describing the fish tracking component, and defer most of the technical details of how the array would be constructed for later consideration.
Continental Shelf Program
Because the continental shelf off the West Coast of North America is very narrow (less than 20 kms wide in most places), the narrowness of the shelf lends itself to a broad-scale monitoring program using acoustic tags for animals such as juvenile salmon that remain on the shelf. Recent developments in acoustic technology (e.g. Lacroix and Voegeli 2000) allows reliably detecting uniquely identifiable sonic tags using low-cost passive receivers ($1,000 per receiver). These receivers can detect sonic tags within an ca. 1-2 km diameter circle centred on the receiver (depending on the acoustic power of the tag), recording the date and time that individual tags are detected for a year or more, and have a recording capacity per receiver of 300,000 or more detections (about 8,000 per day, on average). In principle then, a series of autonomous receivers laid in a line across the shelf perpendicular to the long-shelf migration path of animals such as Pacific salmon would then be capable of detecting and recording the movements of each individual passing over the detection line. By placing separate lines of cross-shelf receivers at appropriate spacing on the shelf, a detailed picture of the movement patterns of tagged animals would be possible (Fig. 3).
As the shelf on the West Coast is usually less than 20 kms wide, a string of 30 receivers laid across the shelf and down the slope region should be capable of detecting most tagged shelf and slope animals crossing each detection line. The costs of developing a broad scale acoustic array are surprisingly modest. The current generation of receivers are commercially available for $1,000 so, taking into account the need for additional infrastructure to place the receivers and recover the data, it may be possible to place and maintain each listening node on the seabed for perhaps $5,000. As a result, this leads to an approximate cost for a single monitoring line on the order of $150,000; thus for roughly 3 million dollars a network of 20 or so acoustic listening lines could be deployed that would stretch from California to the Aleutian islands (Fig. 2). Such a line would be capable of detecting individual animals as they crossed the monitoring lines. The smallest uniquely identifiable acoustic tags operating at frequencies useful for detection at hundreds of meters are capable of being surgically implanted into salmon smolts as small as 10.5 cms and retained for months or years (Welch et al in press). As these tags have operational lifetimes under continuous operation of ca. 4.5 months, and slightly larger tags have lifespans of years, it is potentially possible to expect to tag young salmon in-river or on the shelf and be able to follow their movements for the rest of their life history. The shelf component of project POST will focus on defining a “proof of principle” experiment to demonstrate the validity of putting into place such a network. Such a monitoring framework would provide the basis for tracking any animal present on the continental shelf that was tagged with a uniquely identifiable sonic tag: smolts, immature shelf-resident salmon stocks in their second or third year of life, or even whales and other marine mammals. (A wide complement of other marine fish could also be detected by such a monitoring network, bringing in the possibility of building broad support for the monitoring network and spreading costs by monitoring the movements of other high-valued fish such as halibut, black cod, Pacific hake, and Pacific mackerel). The advantage of a fixed coastal array is that the geographic position of each array element is known with precision, so the detection of uniquely tagged animals by the array elements allows reconstruction of the coastal movements (direction and rate of movement between array elements, and time of occurrence in specific regions of the coast). Alternative systems, such as a system where the tag records the time that an acoustically active fishing vessels is nearby, requires the recovery of the tag from the animal; this means that many more tags must be used than will be recovered. The great advantage of a fixed array is that recovery of tagged animals is not required, and many species might be simultaneously studied by the same array.
The British Columbia study in 2002 will be focussed on steelhead from two adjacent river watersheds (Keogh & Waukwaas), whose rivers empty into the eastern and western coasts of Vancouver Island (Fig. 5). Despite their geographic proximity (the watersheds are adjacent to one another on the same mountain), the marine survival of smolts from all rivers on the eastern side of Vancouver Island is much lower than that of steelhead smolts exiting to the west coast of Vancouver Island (Welch et al 2000). This difference is believed to have a genetic basis, with steelhead from the Keogh & Waukwaas taking different marine migration routes and therefore being exposed to different oceanographic regions.
An important principle in the development of a continental scale array is that all of the equipment must eventually sit on the seabed and not involve surface floats that are vulnerable to vessel traffic or fishing activities. The deployment was thus planned to gain some experience with this principle. Both detection lines were placed on the seabed using a horizontal groundline, and vertical floats spaced 350m apart were used to position the receivers about 0.5 m off the seabed. On the outer edge of the northern detection line, where a deep channel reached ca 350 m depth, the length of the vertical float lines was increased to position the receivers at or above 200 m. All equipment was placed on the bottom, out of sight, and was retrieved by triggering acoustic releases which brought the floats and the end of the groundlines up to the surface. The groundline was then retrieved using a chartered seine vessel. A commercial fishing vessel was used for the deployment both to develop involvement with the industry and to maintain the principle of using low cost vessels for deploying the array.
Conclusions There is no prior information on the inshore movements of steelhead smolts after entering the ocean, so it is difficult to put the biological findings from the current very limited study into a broader context at this time. From tagging work using conventional numbered tags there is evidence for steelhead moving north along the continental shelf migration path that the other species of Pacific salmon all seem to use as juveniles; however, there is also some evidence that at least some steelhead may move directly off the continental shelf to the open ocean (Hartt and Dell 1986). The resolution to such questions awaits the development of a permanent continental-scale acoustic tracking array.
Acknowledgements We thank the Census of Marine Life for support, inspiration, and funding, and a number of individuals within our institutions for their enthusiastic support. We would especially like to acknowledge Reg Bigham and Hugh MacLean for technical support with the moorings, and Lloyd Burroughs, Melinda Jacobs, and Adrian LaDouceur for assistance with the surgical implantation (and not complaining too much when left alone to complete them with a cougar in the vicinity!). Captain Robert Howitch of Quatsino provided us with much useful information on the area and made the recovery of the array look simple.
References Arnold, G.P., and Dewar, H. (2002) Electronic tags in marine fisheries research: A 30-year perspective. in: J.R. Sibert and J.L. Nielsen (eds.), Electronic Tagging and Tracking in Marine Fisheries, p. 7-64.
Emery, K.O. (1980) Continental margins: Classification and petroleum prospects. Bull. Amer. Assoc. Pert. Geol. 64:297-315.
Groot, C., and Margolis, L., (eds) (1991) Pacific salmon life histories. UBC Press, Vancouver. 564 p.
Hartt, A.C., and Dell, M.B. (1986) Early Oceanic Migrations and Growth of Juvenile Pacific Salmon and Steelhead Trout. Int. North Pacific Fish. Comm. 46:1-105.
Khan, K. (2000) Maritime Boundaries. Globe. (August Issue; See http://www.defencejournal.com/globe/2000/aug/maritime.htm)
Lacroix, G.L., and Voegeli, F.A. Development of automated monitoring systems for ultrasonic transmitters. In: Fish Telemetry: Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Fish Telemetry in Europe. (Eds: Moore, A; Russell, I) CEFAS, Lowestoft, UK, 37-50.
National Research Council (2000) Illuminating the Hidden Planet. The Future of Seafloor Observatory Science. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. 135 pages.
Quinn, T.P. (1993) A review of homing and straying of wild and hatchery-produced salmon. Fisheries Research 18: 29-44.
Quinn, T.P., Volk, E.C. and Hendry, A.P. (1999) Natural otolith microstructure patterns reveal precise homing to natal incubation sites by sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka). Canadian Journal of Zoology 77: 766-775.
Voegeli, F.A., Lacroix, G.L., and Anderson, J.M. (1998) Development of miniature pingers for tracking Atlantic salmon smolts at sea. Hydrobiologia 371/372, 35-46.
Welch, D.W., and J.P. Eveson. (1999) An assessment of the geoposition accuracy of data storage (archival) tags using light. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 56(7):1317-1327
Welch, D.W. and Eveson, J.P. (2001) Recent Progress in Estimating Geoposition using Daylight. In: Electronic Tagging and Tracking In Marine Fisheries” In: Methods and Technologies in Fish Biology and Fisheries, Vol. 1. J. Sibert and J. Nielsen (eds.) Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. p. 369-384.
Welch, D.W., Batten, S.D., and Ward, B.R. (in review) Growth, Survival, and Rates of Tag Retention for Surgically Implanted Acoustic Tags in Steelhead Trout (O. mykiss). Trans. Am. Fish. Soc.
Welch, D.W., Ward, B.R., Smith, B.D., and Eveson, J.P. 2000. Temporal and Spatial Responses of British Columbia Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Populations to Ocean Climate Shifts. Fisheries Oceanography 9:17-32.
Wiseman, J.D.H., and Ovey, C.D. (1953) Definitions of features on the deep-sea floor. Deep-Sea Research 1:11-16.
List of Figures
Fig. 1. Geography of Quatsino Sound and layout of the acoustic array. Holberg Inlet extends 20 kms to the northwest of Line G. The scale bar is 10 kms.
Fig. 2. Three examples of movement patterns within Quatsino Sound: (A) Rapid emigration to the open sea from freshwater; (B) Extensive use of an inlet before leaving for the open sea; (C) Long-term estuarine residence. Note that for clarity straight line connecting sequential detection points have been plotted, however, distances used in speed calculations used the shortest feasible movement path through water.
Fig. 3. Time from release to first detection on the RM line for the 31 steelhead smolts detected entering the ocean.
Fig. 5. Frequency histogram of measured rates of movement for all recorded path segments.


Industry-leading data sharing partnership announced
A data sharing partnership has been agreed between BGS and Ossian, allowing BGS to advance its knowledge of the rock and soil conditions under the seabed.02/11/2023
BGS has forged a partnership with Ossian — which will be one of the world’s largest floating wind farms on completion — to share valuable data that will support BGS’s work to understand earth and environmental processes.
The agreement means that BGS will be provided with information Ossian’s geophysical surveys, which will examine the seabed around its 858 km2 site. Once completely covered by ice, the site is now around 72 m below sea level and is situated 84 km off the east coast of Scotland.
The data will allow scientists to understand more about the seabed’s composition and subsurface structure, and how these have changed over time due to environmental changes and challenges. The partnership will provide BGS with data that will advance its knowledge and understanding of the rock and soil units under the seabed and update its baseline data for the region and benefit the offshore industry as a whole.
At BGS, we rely heavily on these sorts of collaborations to update our understanding of regional stratigraphy across sites, which can then be fed into publicly available datasets, reports and papers for all users of the seabed (and subsurface) to access in the future.
Data and scientific collaborations are essential for updating state-of-the-art knowledge and understanding of ground conditions for all to use in relation to future developments. This is a truly fantastic collaboration between BGS and Ossian Wind Farm, and BGS is very grateful to the joint venture for seeing the potential in this project.
Gareth Carter, BGS Marine Geoscientist.
BGS has worked with Ossian joint venture partner SSE Renewables on data sharing initiatives for more than a decade.
Ossian will be one of the largest floating offshore wind farms in the world, with up to 3.6 GW of potential capacity — enough to power up to six million homes.
It is one of the largest lease areas of the ScotWind projects, occupying 858 km2 of seabed 84 km off the east coast of Scotland.
The scale and floating technology make it a game changer in the UK renewable energy sector and a critical driving force behind the journey to net zero, offsetting up to 7.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
Ossian is a joint venture between SSE Renewables, Marubeni and CIP, bringing together local and global experience as well as unparalleled technical and environmental expertise.
It will provide a significant economic boost for the supply chain, with a multi-million-pound fund committed to support local orders and investments.
About the author


October 4, 2011
- British Wildlife Photography awards 2011 (recommended)
- Mexico will ban shark fishing as global sanctuary movement grows
- Hoki quota increase may be ‘too hasty’. Industry calls for precaution. A sign that catch shares work?
- Without subsidies, 4.6% loss for EU fishing fleet.
- Arctic needs more oil-drilling protection.


The Blue Hub for PMAR
Under the name PMAR (Piracy, Maritime Awareness & Risks), three projects have been carried out by the European Commission’s
Joint Research Centre to strengthen the maritime awareness capacities of authorities in West and East Africa for the long term.
The initiative was started following a resolution by the European Parliament on piracy at sea.
The PMAR projects concern in-depth studies and trials of technologies to build up maritime awareness, with special focus on how these
tools can be used by the authorities in the regions affected by piracy. The work includes research to assesses the usefulness of various
data sources on ship traffic, explore ways to integrate them, and quantify their relative contributions.
The first two PMAR projects aimed at the Horn of Africa (from 2010 to 2012) and at the Gulf of Guinea (from 2011 to 2013).
The most recent one, PMAR-MASE, ran between July 2014 and October 2015, and included the provision of the real-time Maritime Situational Picture
of the entire Western Indian Ocean to two operational authorities, in Kenya and the Seychelles, for one whole year.
As a part of the European-funded MASE program for the enhancement of maritime security in the Eastern-Southern Africa / Indian Ocean (ESA-IO)
region, and carried out for the Indian Ocean Commission, it widened the scope to broader maritime awareness beyond only counter-piracy.
Access the tool
The tool is available here
Acknowledgments and references
Data provided by the Norwegian Coastal Administration, MSSIS / Volpe Center / US Navy, Flag States of the EU LRIT DC / EMSA, exactEarth, LuxSpace/Orbcomm, SpaceQuest.
- Greidanus H., Alvarez M., Eriksen T., Gammieri V.: 'Completeness and Accuracy of a Wide-Area Maritime Situational Picture based on Automatic Ship Reporting Systems',
Journal of Navigation 69(1), pp. 156-168, 2016.
- Greidanus H., Alvarez M., Eriksen T., 'Maritime Awareness at Regional and Global Scales', NMIO Technical Bulletin, National Maritime
Intelligence-Integration Office, Vol. 9, pp. 14-15, 2015.
- Alvarez M., Gammieri V., Alessandrini A., Ziemba L., Mazzarella F., Delaney C., Vespe M., Greidanus H., 'PMAR Viewer User Manual, Issue Feb 2015', JRC
Technical Report JRC94785, EUR 27117 EN, ISSN 1831-9424, doi: 10.2788/213253, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015.
- Greidanus H., Alvarez M., Gammieri V., Santamaria C., Alessandrini A., Argentieri P., 'Maritime Awareness Systems Performance in the Western Indian Ocean
2014-2015 - Results from the PMAR-MASE project', JRC Technical Report JRC97935, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015.
- Eriksen T., Greidanus H., Alvarez M., Nappo D., Gammieri V., 'Quality of AIS Services for Wide-Area Maritime Surveillance', Maritime Systems and
Technologies Conference (MAST 2014), Istanbul, 2014.
- Greidanus H., Alvarez M., Eriksen T., Argentieri P., Cokacar T., Pesaresi A., Falchetti S., Nappo D., Mazzarella F., Alessandrini A., 'Basin-Wide
Maritime Awareness From Multi-Source Ship Reporting Data', TransNav International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation,
7(2), pp. 35-42, 2013.
- Greidanus H., Alvarez M., Eriksen T., Barbas T., 'Ship traffic distributions and statistics in the Gulf of Guinea and off West Africa', JRC Scientific
and Policy Report JRC87225, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013.
- Falchetti S., Alvarez M., Cokacar T., Greidanus H., Vespe M., 'Improving Cooperative Vessel Tracking for a Maritime Integrated Surveillance
Platform', Proc. NATO RTO SCI-247 Symposium on "Port and Regional Maritime Security", Lerici, Italy, 2012.
- Posada M., Greidanus H., Alvarez M., Vespe M., Cokacar T., Falchetti S., 'Maritime awareness for counter-piracy in the Gulf of Aden', IEEE 2011
International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2011), Vancouver, Canada, pp. 249-252, 2011.


I caught my first shark today! A juvenile lemon shark. Such a cool experience to handle a shark and be part of a project working to protect these amazing animals.
The ride out this morning was a little rough and overcast. We pulled up to the first, spot and anchored the line. It was promising. A shallow cove surrounded by mangroves with a small channel leading inland. It was the perfect spot for baby sharks.
Lemon sharks stay in shallow waters for their first years of life. The mangroves provide protection as well as a buffet of smaller fish to eat. As the sharks get bigger they move out from the protection of the mangroves to patrol deeper waters. But not until they are 4-5 years old and around 5 feet long. We don’t really know where they go after they leave their mangrove nursery, but aggregations of lemon sharks are found along the eastern seaboard, as far up as North Carolina.
After we set the chum in the water, and baited the lines, we waited patiently, hoping for the sun to peak out from behind the clouds. It had been about 20 minutes and we hadn’t seen anything, not even a nibble. It was perfectly quiet. Then, I got my first bite! I grasped my fishing rod tightly – the little shark on the other end put up a quite a fight. I was so excited reeling it in. I pulled it along side of the boat and Mark Bond, one of the veteran scientists on the project, leaned over to grab it. After the shark settled down, we took 3 measurements. One from the tip of the nose to the notch right before the tail (caudal) fin, then to the fork in the caudal fin, and then to the tip. My shark was 105 cm, or about 3.4 feet.
Then Sean Williams, another shark researcher on board, took a small genetic sample, and Mark set the tag right below the base of the dorsal fin. Then the shark swam quickly off, disappearing into the shadows of the mangroves.
We caught another Lemon at that site, a smaller male, and then continued to fish at 4 other locations. At the next site, we saw a few Lemons, but ended up catching a bonnethead – one of the smallest types of hammerhead shark. Bonnetheads have a head that looks like garden trowel and only grow up to about 4 feet.
We didn’t have much luck the rest of the day, only catching 2 more bonnetheads, one of which got off right at the side of the boat. At 4:30 pm we headed back to Port Lucaya through some rough seas and a big rain storm. We were a little soaked through, but it was a great day. One I will never forget, catching and tagging my first shark!
Later on we feasted on a home cooked turkey dinner and went to bed with full bellies. Happy Easter.