Short Term Movement Patterns of Striped Bass Quantified Using Acoustic Tri-Axial Accelerometers in a Massachusetts Coastal Tidal Bay

Striped bass (Morone saxatilis) are highly targeted by recreational anglers along the Atlantic coastline and are an important source of revenue for the sport fishing industry.  Although there is a good understanding of their seasonal migration patterns, less is known about the short-term movements of striped bass once they have reached coastal embayments frequented during the summer months.  Between June and October 2011, we used a fixed acoustic receiver array (n=33 receivers) deployed in Plymouth/Kingston/Duxbury (PKD) Bay, Massachusetts to quantify short-term movement and activity patterns of striped bass.  Thirty-four striped bass (38.5-80.5 cm TL) caught with hook and line were surgically implanted with acoustic tri-axial acceleration transmitters at three discrete sampling periods (early June, late July, and early September). Of the thirty-four striped bass tagged, thirty-two were heard regularly in PKD Bay following release, generating over 70,000 reliable detections. Preliminary assessment of movement patterns show relatively low activity levels and site fidelity for most of the season, plus insight into daily tidal movements and feeding behavior. This study is one of the first to use accelerometers to quantify the activity levels in striped bass, a tool that should prove useful for also understanding impacts related to catch-and-release angling.