Use of pop-up satellite archival tag technology to study postrelease survival of and habitat use by estuarine and coastal fishes: an application to striped bass (Morone saxatilis)

Developments in pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) have greatly improved scientific understanding of the postrelease survival, behavior, and movements of marine vertebrates—animals from which it is not always practical to physically recover tags to obtain data (Arnold and Dewar, 2001; Graves et. al. 2002). PSATs take measurements of physical conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, light level) while attached to study animals, independently detach at predetermined times, float to the surface, and transmit data to orbiting satellites of the Argos system. Owing to the mass and size of older tags (~65 g), PSAT deployments have historically been limited to large pelagic marine vertebrates such as billfishes, tunas, sharks, and sea turtles. Recent miniaturization of tag components has led to the development of a new generation of PSATs that are 33% smaller, thus enabling the collection of highresolution time-series data for inferences regarding short-term fate and habitat use by increasingly smaller species, including many estuarine and coastal fishes. To evaluate the utility of the new generation of smaller PSATs for studies of estuarine and coastal fishes, we deployed ten tags on large, coastal, migratory striped bass (Morone saxatilis) caught on live baits rigged on two hook types in the winter recreational fishery off coastal Virginia and North Carolina. Although smallUse of pop-up satellite archival tag technology to study postrelease survival of and habitat use by estuarine and coastal fishes: an application to striped bass (Morone saxatilis)