Movement patterns and home ranges of a pelagic carangid fish, Caranx crysos, around a petroleum platform complex

Marine Ecology Progress Series

Harmon Brown¹  Mark C. Benfield¹  Sean P. Powers¹  Sean F. Keenan¹ 

关键词: Home range;    Caranx crysos;    Petroleum platforms;    Gulf of Mexico;    Movement;    Carangidae;    Acoustic telemetry;   

DOI  :  10.3354/meps08465

学科分类：海洋学与技术

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: Quantification of the movements and home ranges of highly mobile marine species is a challenging prerequisite for a more complete understanding of their ecology. Caranx crysos is a pelagic carangid found in large schools over the mid-shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Twenty-three C. crysos were surgically implanted with acoustic transmitters, and their positions were localized around a petroleum platform complex in the Gulf of Mexico using a hydrophone network. Fish were tracked during August 2005 for 23 d, and home ranges were calculated for individual fish over the daily, diel, and entire study period. Most fish showed a preference for a discrete area within the platform complex: 11 fish had a range centroid near one platform for at least 7 d, and 9 fish had a range centroid near one platform for at least 3 d. Only 3 fish showed no preference for a particular site within the platform complex. Mean core daily range varied from 373 to 2202 m², while the 95% daily range was between 3082 and 14333 m². Evidence for diel differences in habitat use was also apparent. Hydrophones detected more transmissions during the day than during the night; however, only 3 fish had significantly larger home ranges during the day than during the night. There was a significant correlation between fish length and both the size of their overall core home range and the size of the 95% daily home range. Our results suggest that this schooling pelagic species establishes a home range in the vicinity of structure.

【 授权许可】

Unknown