Big bro the r is watching you! An acoustic receiver netw ork to track
the whereabouts o f fishes
Reubens Jan13, Ans M outon2, Klaas D eneudt3, Francisco Hernandez3 and André C attrijsse3
1 Marine Biology Research Group, Biology Departm ent, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281, S8,
B-9000 Gent, Belgium
E-mail: lan.Reubens@UGent.be
2 Research Institute fo r Nature and Forest, K liniekstraat 25, B-1070 Brussel, Belgium
3 Flanders Marine Institute, InnovOcean site, Wandelaarkaai 7, B-8400 Oostende, Belgium
Camera surveillance, Bluetooth connection, social m edia... There are plenty o f possibilities to check
the w hereabouts o f people. But w hat w ith the whereabouts o f m igrating fishes? W o uldn’t it be
interesting to know th e ir whereabouts!
Since the 1900s, several West-European m ig rato ry fish populations suffered a substantial decline
and by 1950 many species were severely threatened or even e xtinct. Various causes fo r th is trend
have been reported, such as chem ical p ollutio n, changes in physical habitat, m igration barriers,
predation pressure (overfishing), lower body co nd itio n, infections, hydrodynam ic and climate
change. To help w ith the recovery and sustainable use o f the m ig rato ry fish species, several legal
incentives have been im plem ented d urin g the last decades.
However, crucial knowledge on the m igration routes, spatio-tem poral habitat use and behaviour o f
the m ig rato ry fish species is still lacking in many cases. This situation may change d rastically w ith
the developm ent and o ptim isa tio n o f new survey techniques. The m ost prom ising technique,
acoustic telem etry, allows fle xib le and co st-e fficien t spatio-tem poral tracking o f m ig ra to ry fish
species. VLIZ and INBO recently initiated a perm anent acoustic receiver netw ork in the Western
Scheldt Estuary and the Belgian coastal area in the fram e w o rk o f the LifeWatch project
(h ttp ://w w w .life w a tc h .b e ). This offers wide o p p o rtu n itie s fo r collaboration between Belgian partners
to study m ig ra to ry fish species w ith d is tin c t behaviour and habitat use at a larger (Belgian and
international) scale.
In ord er to cover the various modes o f m igration patterns, several m ig ra to ry fish species w ill be
studied. For m arine, coastal and estuarine systems, A tla n tic cod (Cadus m orhu a L.), w ill be the
m odel species, while In Belgian rivers European eel (A nguilla a n g u illa L.) is representative fo r
catadrom ous dow nstream m igration. In a later phase, o th e r species, such as European sea bass
(D icentrarchus la b ra x L.), tw aite shad (Alosa fa lla x L.), river lam prey (Lam petra flu v ia tilis L.) and sea
tro u t (Salmo tr u tta L.) can be added to the network.
The acoustic tracking w ill help to define
m igration behaviour.
m igration
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routes, spatio-tem poral habitat use and