Abstract

The wahoo, Acanthocybium solandri, is an offshore marine fish which inhabits tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate waters worldwide. Wahoo are reported to be highly migratory and to visit a wide variety of open ocean habitats, and are economically important over most of their range. Despite this mobility and commercial value, there is very little scientific data concerning the movement patterns or habitat preferences of wahoo. This presentation describes our research project using pop-up satellite tags (PSAT's) to study the movements and habitat preferences of wahoo in the western Atlantic Ocean. A PSAT is a technologically advanced wildlife tag which can monitor the movements of pelagic fishes, independent of potentially biased commercial fishery data. Computer chips on-board each PSAT measure and record water depth, water temperature, and fish position over a pre-determined period of time. At the end of this period, the PSAT's on-board computer initiates a detachment signal and the positively buoyant tag floats to the surface. The stored data is transmitted to a satellite and then to the researcher's computer via electronic mail and the World Wide Web. This presentation describes the protocol used to capture, tag, and release wahoo and presents preliminary data obtained from the first several tags to be successfully deployed

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