Abstract

Studying how fish utilize artificial structures is a key component to understanding anthropogenic effects on the marine environment. Greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili) is an overfished reef-associated species that is commonly associated with high-relief artificial habitats such as petroleum platforms. Unfortunately, our understanding of greater amberjack habitat use remains relatively limited. While it is well recognized that greater amberjack utilize petroleum platforms, many decommissioned petroleum platforms are converted to artificial reefs once they are decommissioned, and our understand-ing of how this process impacts greater amberjack habitat use is not well understood. The present study uses acoustic telemetry with pressure transmitters to examine vertical habitat use of greater amberjack at both a petroleum platform and artificial reef site off the coast of Louisiana in the northern Gulf of Mexico. A single acoustic receiver (Innovasea Systems Inc.; VR2Tx and VR2AR) was deployed at each study site. Greater amberjack (n = 22) were captured by hook and line and tagged internally with transmitters in June 2022 (Innovasea Systems Inc.; V16P-4h; nominal transmission delay 90 seconds, battery life ~2806 days, resolution 0.6 m). Our data will allow us to estimate site fidelity and compare vertical habitat use between a site with continuous vertical relief and one with moderate vertical relief. In addition, we will evaluate how vertical habitat use is influenced by temporal (diel, seasonal) and environmental (flow, temperature) variables. With this information we hope to draw conclusions regarding the importance of petroleum platforms to greater amberjack, and whether artificial reefs provide functionally similar habitat.

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