Abstract

During the pilot season of a three-year PSAT tagging project of ocean sunfish, Mola mola, in the northwest Atlantic, an ocean sunfish was tagged and released with a pop-up satellite archival tag off of Cape Cod, MA and tracked for 130 days. The fish traveled a distance of approximately 3,000 km to the Gulf of Mexico. Vertical movement of the fish in waters off New England after initial tagging was at depths ? 200 m with large amounts of surface time, as was consistent with two other fish tagged in the area. However, as the fish moved southward, its vertical behavior changed to increased time at depth (200-500 m) and no time at the surface. Maximum depth for the fish was 591 meters. The fish spent the majority of time in waters between 10-20°C, experiencing increased temperatures when it entered the Gulf of Mexico. In the project’s first field season following the pilot study, 15 fish were tagged with PSAT’s in the northwest Atlantic during the months of July and August 2006. The objectives of the study are to: 1) determine the spatial and temporal distribution of Mola mola off the northeast coast of the United States; 2) study their movement and migratory patterns; and 3) quantify temperature and depth preferences of M. mola. In addition to tagging, the project includes analysis of aerial sightings of Mola mola in northeast shelf waters from several databases (1974 – present)

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