Abstract

The ability to quantify animal movement is fundamental to the understanding of a suite of important individual- and population-level processes that are likely to influence overall fitness and survival (Finn et al. 2014). Almost every process related to animal ecology is intimately linked to movement; including foraging, spawning patterns, dispersal, and migration. Movement patterns can help delineate optimal habitats which reflect both sufficient food availability and a decrease in predation risk (Furey et al. 2013). Essential habitats generally remain understudied for most marine fishes (Boström et al. 2011, Furey et al. 2013), yet are vital for appropriate management decisions. The implementation of acoustic telemetry in marine environments has provided a new level of resolution to monitoring movement patterns (Humston et al. 2005; Finn et al. 2014), however, longer term (i.e. seasonal and yearly) fine-scale movement patterns are still unknown for most species of fish. A recent advancement in acoustic telemetry uses a closely spaced grid of receivers to triangulate a fish’s location providing fine-scale movement resolution (Espinoza et al. 2011; Furey et al. 2013). Outcomes for this type of information include providing data for extremely dynamic systems allowing for optimization of protection measures employed, including the development of location, size, and boundaries of protected areas. In general, there is limited data on quantifying species ranges and habitat use in which to guide future management decisions to ensure a species’ persistence (Klein et al. 2015).

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